this should really be a 4 1/2, but it does not give that option, so I rounded up since I like almost everything about the camera, and it is great for what I bought it for. I bought this lightweight small camera to keep in my purse-for those unexpected shots you want to take. I have a Sony Cypershot with a 12X optical that I normally use. The Sony is great for action shots and taking marching band shots from the bleachers. This one, I'm not sure could do that. It has a 3x optical, which is fine for zooming in on a person across the room, but not as far as into the football field. The in-camera zoom is ok for trimming, but I noticed it does lose some of the clarity on the shot.The one drawback to this camera is the lag time between shots. If you like capturing shot after shot quickly-avoid this camera. However, if you are someone who generally takes shots of people at birthday parties, or objects on your vacation, this might be a great camera for you. It is a decent camera for the price. For what I wanted it for, it is perfect.
Ok, to sum up:
PROS
Small, lightweight
Good picture quality
Can take an SD card up to 4GB (That's A LOT!)
Easy to use
Inexpensive-goes on sale sometimes for around $100
Can take rechargeable batteries (I recommend for ALL digital cameras)
Video capabilities
Software compatable with older Windows(in case you need that)
CONS
Lag time between shots
In Camera Zoom loses picture quality
As you can see, I like most of the features. If you are looking for a decent, inexpensive point and shot type camera, then this might be the one for you.
Otherwise if anything the Samsung is better because it takes equally good pictures with excellent color accuracy inside and out, and needs less tweaking on auto.
Some reveiwers reveal their ignorance because they use alkaline batteries in the first place and yet complain of short battery life. Alkaline batteries last about a third as long as rechargeable Nimh ones, and the latter can be charged 500-1000 times. Alkaline batteries make no sense.
Moreover, there is a setting for Nimh batteries and Alkaline. If you use Nimh, youll get astonishly long battery life, but not if the factory setting of "alkaline" isn't changed.
I might also add that Nimh batteries can be normally in the 1800-2700 range, and the higher they are the longer the battery life.
I don't change the batteries on this camera very often at all, but I use some of the energy saver settings and 2700 NIMH batteries of the type that don't lose hardly any of their charge (sold cheaply on Amazon). Otherwise regular NIMH batteries lose 40% of their charge EVERY MONTH just sitting around.
I bought my battery charger including 4 2500 NIMH batteries for $13 from Amazon with no shipping charges or tax. Get the batteries that hardly lose their charge too.
There are many setting that extend the battery life as well, such as "lcd save", "normal" vs. "fine" and "ultra-fine", lcd "bright, normal and dark", and also how long you want the image to show after taking it (1-5 seconds), and how much time yould like to elapse before the camera shuts off (3-10 minutes).
All digital cameras have difficult menus and poor manuals, so it's no wonder users struggle often with the wrong settings. Some of the settings cannot be made on "Auto" and must be made on "P" (program).
Now the 7 and 8mp version are out and they are even cheaper. The settings and quality on the 7mp are the same; the settings on the 8mp
have been rearranged a bit, but it is smaller with the same size monitor.
So get either of those instead.I bought this for my mom for Mother's Day and I'm disappointed. The picture quality just isn't there, all the pictures feel a little flat. Not blurry, per se, just never crisp. That being the primary function of a camera, I can't get too up on this thing. I have a 5 year old Nikon Coolpix 2100 that I paid the same price for back then (87 bucks on sale) that takes better photos than this. Cheap optics on this camera, I suppose.
The battery life seems to be fairly limited as well and the response time seems a tad slow. If an inanimate object could have malaise, this camera would.
Everything works, and nothing's bad enough to make me feel ripped off, but by no means is this little thing impressive, certainly not as great as what some of the other reviewers have made it out to be. It is what it is, I suppose, but I'm still a little bummed.We bought our German exchange student a digital camera for Christmas. It was a different make, and it lasted all of four months before heading to the great recycling center in the sky. When I discovered the camera we had bought only had a 3 month warranty, I felt badly and decided to get her a replacement that might actually last for a decent period of time.
After researching various cameras, I discovered this particular camera. It was the right price, had similar features to the one we had previously given her and it had a 1 year warranty. Also, the warranty is good worldwide, allowing her to get warranty service in Germany if it becomes necessary. That is not a common feature in other makes.
After several weeks of use, she is thrilled with the way it works. It takes wonderful pictures for a point and shoot, and is constructed of far better materials than similar priced cameras. I will admit that it does take a little while to record a picture, and it does inhale batteries, but these are problems that we saw in her previous camera, and I think are a function of the price.
Overall, for the price and type of camera, we are extremely happy and would buy another Samsung camera in a flash. If you are looking for a sophisticated camera, look elsewhere, but if you want a quick point and shoot camera, this is an ideal choice.I take pictures of cars for car dealers for a living and this camera is just what we needed, something CHEAP that takes very good photos. The battery life, unlike some other statements, is great for me. I can go all day, usually around 600 shots and not have to swap out batteries. I use 2500mA batteries from Wal-Mart and have used the same set for two years now, every single day! I did manage to drop the camera pretty hard on a parking lot and the battery door flew open and batteries flew out across the lot, but when I put them back in, the camera worked fine and this was a month ago. It did damage the nice red finish, but that's not too important to me. The 2.5" LCD is a little hard to see in direct sunlight, but not nearly as bad as my old Canon Powershot camera. Indoor performance is not so great though, so if you're wanting something to do indoor portraits or lots of flash photography, you better not get this one.
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