5.3 Megapixel, 3x Optical Zoom, Compact, Video Capability Included, 2.4 in. LCD Panel, Built-in, MMC Card, SD Card, Built-In Flash

Reviews

Samsung Digimax S500 digital camera review

Design

The Samsung S500 is a chunky piece of kit, but that’s what makes it ideal for those youngsters who get mucky fingers before picking something up, and then let them slip from their hands.  There’s a sturdy hand grip that hugs the front left of the camera with a sleek blue strip to wrap your fingers around.  As well as that the front houses the lens with its telescopic zoom, a flash and the red-eye indicator.  Turn the camera around and the Digimax S500 has a large 2.4 inch LCD for improved contrast and colour reproduction, allowing you to enjoy a wider and clearer image.  And to its right there are three handily positioned buttons for special effects, deleting and print/play as well as a circular navigation wheel for selecting things like the auto-timer and macro shots, and finally just above that is the zoom cradle.  Up top you’ve got the shoot button as well as an attractive corrugated wheel for selecting scene mode.  The Samsung Digimax DC-S500 is available in black or silver and measures 3.8 x 2.4 x 1 inches and weighing 4.8 ounces.

Setup/Installation

The Samsung Digimax S500 is part of the Samsung Point and Shoot range and as such is very easy to use- you just point and shoot.  It doesn’t take long to get set up and start shooting.

Features

What we like about the S500 is it is feature rich. The 5.1 megapixel camera comes with a 3x optical zoom,  35mm-to-105mm (35mm equivalent), f/2.8-to-f/4.9 zoom lens, which extends to 15x digital zoom, which is a respectable amount for anyone.  The 2.4 inch LCD is a decent. The three buttons provided at the back let you access the play mode easily as well as ISO, white balance, RGB intensity and exposure compensation as well as full manual expsure.  There’s also lots of special effects like colour modes, stitch-assist mode, framing and photoframe overlay.  The S500 offers full auto modes, as well as 10 scene presets including child, night and macro.   It also comes with voice recording and movie recording too.

Performance

Performance for the Digimax S500 was pretty good.  The LCD wasn’t easy to see in direct sunlight, but then that’s so often the case.  Taking pictures was really easy and the quality of picture wasn’t too bad.  The flash worked well covering a distance of around 10 metres.  It only too the camera 1.8 seconds to power up and capture its first image, which is pretty good, however once warmed up it took a little bit longer at around 2.4 seconds between shots without flash and a snail-slow 3.6 seconds with flash turned on. The shutter lag was a speedy 0.5 second in high-contrast situations and 1.3 seconds in low-contrast lighting. Exposures were generally accurate, though images were slightly soft and had noticeable fringing in highlights, especially with backlit subjects.

Overall Opinion

There are better cameras from Samsung that on the whole provide better images. But if it’s a very basic digital camera that you’re looking for, one that gives you average quality image but doesn’t cost the earth – something that will get you used to taking snaps before you invest in something better, then the Samsung is a fine camera with plenty of features.  However, if you’ve got more cash to spare and want to splash out we’d suggest going for some of their other range.

Pros	Cons
Easy to use Feature rich Cheap price Decent Zoom	Poor picture quality Not as good as other Samsung cameras

Reviewed by on 3:15pm Fri 13th Oct 2006

Factor	Rating
Ease of Use	3/5
Durability	3/5
Style	3/5
Service & Support	3/5
Value for Money	3/5
Recommend	1/5
Overall	3/5

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