Product Description: The Samsung S860 is a high-resolution digital camera that is equipped with a true-color filtered 8.1-Megapixel CCD. This allows the Samsung S860 to take detailed photos for printing up to poster size. With the Face Detection AF & AE function, the Samsung S860 enables the user to take better portrait pictures more easily. This function detects faces and automatically focuses on them. The brightness of the faces is adjusted optimally for beautiful portrait pictures. In macro shooting, it is now possible to take clear, natural pictures. Digital Image Stabilization (DIS) technology prevents the degradation of image clarity and color, which is sometimes found in flash photography. With DIS the effects of image blur are reduced in lower light conditions. You can even take well-exposed, sharper pictures in low light conditions without using a flash at all, which guarantees brighter and more natural pictures. The different icons, scene modes and other features are described in simple and easy to understand terms to improve the interaction between the user and camera. ISO - Auto, 80, 100, 200, 400, 800, and 1000 Flash Modes - Auto, Auto & Red-eye reduction, Fill-in flash, Slow sync, and Flash off Range - Wide 0.3m - 4.0m and Tele 0.5m - 2.1m (ISO AUTO) Self-timer - 2 seconds and 10 seconds Still Image File Format - JPEG (DCF), EXIF 2.2, and DPOF 1.1 Scene Modes - Children, Landscape, Close-up, Text, Sunset, Dawn, Backlight, Fireworks, Beach & Snow, and Night System Requirements - Pentium II 450MHz (Pentium 800MHz recommended), Windows 98SE, 2000, ME, XP, Vista, Mac OS 9.2, 10.4 or later, 64MB RAM, 200MB free space, USB port, CD-ROM drive, 1024x768 pixels, 16-bit color display compatible monitor, Microsoft DirectX 9.0C Dimensions - Approximately Width 3.66 x Height 2.44 x Depth 1.04 (93x62x26.5mm) Weight - 123 grams
good camera with a few quirks I own a Canon Power Shot that works perfectly but only had 3MP so decided to upgrade to a basic , 8MP camera . After searching the internet for reviews , I chose the Samsung S860 and was a bit diasspointed.
I am far from an expert on taking digital pictures and pretty much rely on the Auto mode for most situations, but even that failed me at times . Using anti-shake still sometimes resulted in a blurry, grainy photo and people with blue eyes still had red eyes in certain outdoor photos even when using red eye reduction. Another complaint I have about the camera is that several times the lens got stuck " out" and would not retract inward - the camera is only a few weeks old and I later researched this problem online and found a forum with seevral users experiencing the same issue . The answer was to remove the batteries ,reinsert them and power on and lens did indeed retract - ok , problem solved, but I have concerns that this might be more of a problem as the camera ages so still thinking of returning it .
Overall though , the majority of my shots were more than adequate for the price of the camera and there are a lot of features included for a budget priced 8 mp camera . If anyone has a suggestion for a better 8mp camera in this price range , that is for a basic, beginner photographer , I would certainly be interested in exchanging this one for that model .
Excellent price & performance ratio I mean what one would expect from camera under $100 clear & excellent picture. Even someone who is professional photographer admit to me that your pics are pretty good (never told him about camera before showing pics). Everyday you can use camera for pics and easy to carry + plus battery life is good. You can take video of pretty good quality for amateurs. Also make sure you get rechargeable batteries which will save money and headache of running out of battery in middle of trip.
A 24 hours a day keep-it-with-you-at-all-times camera I uploaded a grasshopper photo in the samples gallery for this camera. I was surprised to see it as sharp as the photos from my Digital SLRs, except some minor jpg artifacts in the blurred background. This photo was taken at full superbright Florida daylight, meaning short shutter speed and hight apperture value. This makes shake free images and long depth of field easy, even handheld. The camera was set to macro mode, with is a one-touch button and therefore quickly activated.
For professional photography I use a digital SLR, and I published books on Amazon with images from my digital SLRs. But those cameras are huge and heavy. This tiny samsung, in case logic strechy bag, is as small as a wallet. I used it for family trips, and to copy documents from pinboards. Much faster than writing down, or searching for a copy machine. Press the macro button, click done. Press the view button, zoom button, to check the image sharpness, off, done. For family photography it's great. The skin tones come out natural. For long exposures just find a table, a fence post or use the ground, to hold the camera firmly with one hand, and press the shutter button with the other. Night shots of fireworks with 4 second exposure time are easy this way. Alkalines lasted 100 to 150 pics without flash. A 2GB SD holds almost 500 pics at 8MP.
A little scary is, that the on button is not a slide, but a press for 2 seconds. The lens will zoom out, and if that happens inside a tight camera bag, will the lens mechnism survive this? Also, the camera switches on, whithout lens coming out, if pressing the play button. But it has a auto-off mode.
One strange effect happened, when the batteries were low, but still working witout flash. When activating the flash, the camera switched off without pulling the lens in! Well, switching it on and off again pulled the lens in. Anyway, makes sense to always have an extra set of fresh batteries.
Using Lightroom to pull shadows or squeeze highlights is pretty much not of much use. This camera optimizes the image already pretty much to the maximum possible. And the dynamic resolution is just not there for further such editing. Be it due to sensor or A/D or jpg noise.
I personally print from this camera 2 prints on one 4x6, so each print is 3x4", which matches the aspect ratio of the sensor, and also at this small size pretty much all images, handheld or not, are sharp.
Following is a link to my book about Suntan adjustment in Lightroom and Photoshop. This of cause only works when using Digital SLRs:
Suntan: Skin Tone Color Adjustments in Lightroom and Photoshop
Nice Camera Very nice Camera. Nice Photos. 1 Problem: Batteries drain quickly (Alkaline). Ill buy Li-on to check.
Good Buy! I purchased this camera for 89.99 at an electronics store so I mainly chose it for the value and the color. The one I have is a bright fuschia. The pictures are awesome! For once I do not have red eye in every picture. The one thing that I liked more about my old cheap Concord is that I found that the menus are much simpler but it may be because I was used to them. This camera has the same menus Ive seen other people have, like the Kodak easy share and many other ones. The pictures are very clear and I don't know how I dealt with not having face recognition at all. Hopefully I don't break this camera.
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