Excellent pictures, Simple to use.
Pros:
Excellent pictures, good menus, good control set. Video clips with sound are unlimited length.
Cons:
Only 16 megs of onboard camera memory, Video is lower resolution than other digicams.
The Bottom Line:
I would recommend this camera for its extreme value in picture quality and flexibility.
|
|
Overall Rating:
|
 |
|
Author's Review
I really like the Samsung 420 4 megapixel camera. It takes excellent pictures and has a good autofocus. Its small, partially due to the fact that it uses smart media cards and only 2 AA batteries. The screen is sharp and detailed, the menus are easy to understand, and the controls are easy to learn.
I'm amazed at the quality of the pictures. We tend to run it at the top resolution, with the next to the lowest compression setting. With a 256 meg card, this yields 118 pictures.
The unit can also do video clips with sound, and I would stress clips. This is not a video camera. The video is 288x208, which is exactly 32x32 less than video cd resolution. You can store a little over 29 minutes of video alone on the camera with 256 megs, and this is continuous. The clip size is only limited by the full size of the memory card. Its stored as mjpeg in an avi, and hence, the video is heavily compressed. Still, the audio is pretty clear, and the video is definitely watchable on the camera screen or a small window. It can be plugged into a television, but that feature is most worthwhile with the still images. I'd think that you could make web videos with it that you could share with broadband connected friends, if you have the bandwidth from your service to support the hosting.
The close focus on stills is amazing. It will focus in macro mode at an amazing 6 cm. This was a key reason that we were interested in this camera, besides the price. At Walmart, it was on sale for $248, and the card we bought for it was 66 on Amazon. The 8x10's, printed on our Epson 740 printer, look outstanding. Better than any other digital source we've printed a photo from, including our scanner.
We have previously purchased the Epson PhotoPC 650 :) (1 MP) and the Minolta 2300 :( (2.3 MP). We were always happiest with the Epson, as it had the most consistent exposure and good color. The Samsung is more of the same, a bit sharper and much higher resolution, with a good control set. We are very happy with this purchase!
