The Samsung Digimax S500 is one of the more straightforward digital cameras. It has five megapixels, a three times zoom lens and is available for well under £100. It is clearly aimed at anyone who is looking for a digital camera that is easy to use and is not too expensive. The Digimax S500 is not quite pocket sized, but is small enough to carry around without a problem. This must be the cheapest camera to offer manual exposure controls as well.

My review of the test shots I took with the Digimax S500 is likely to sound fairly critical. The fact is though that this is a fairly inexpensive digital camera and certain allowances have to be made. A lot of the faults I have found in the sample shots can also be found in other similarly priced digital cameras.

The outdoor scenic shots are not as sharp as I am used to seeing. This is especially true in the first and third shots. In both of these shots I zoomed in. For the third test shot the lens is zoomed in to its full extent. In both cases levels of sharpness are below my expectations. Focusing is better in my second test shot where the zoom in not being used. There is a negative point about the second shot too as darker area are creeping into the corner of each shot.

Another problem is that the Digimax S500 struggles to combat the glare of the sun. This is also highlighted in the first and third test shots. This causes a loss of detail in the boats and also in the wooden slats under the roof of the building in the first test shot.

Colours are not as strong as I have found on the majority of other digital cameras I have tested. It is possible you prefer slightly subtler colours and this is really a matter of personal taste.

As much as I like pink skin tones my feeling is that they are a shade or two overdone in the outdoor portrait. The light falling on the right hand side of the face also causes a loss of detail in the shot. Focusing is good and I am pleased with the levels of sharpness in the picture.

The shot I am happiest with is the indoor portrait. The shot is sharply focused considering the conditions and it is a bright photo as well. Although there is no red eye in the shot I cannot guarantee that every shot you take using the flash will be free of red eye, but my test shot suggests this camera can handle the problem easier than most cameras can.

When light gets really low the Digimax S500 really struggles to focus. This is highlighted by the clearly out of focus shot of beer bottles. You are unlikely to take photos in such extreme conditions as I have here, but be aware once lighting levels fall below a certain level you will find it very hard to get decent quality photos.

The macro shot is darker than I like to see. In terms of focusing I have no complaints. I amended the settings on the camera to try and find a better balance for brightness and also colour, but found the macro shot I took using all automatic settings was the best bet.

ISO 400 is the maximum ISO setting on the Digimax S500. You may wish to use this setting in lowlight. In my test the photo came out quite grey and colours start to be affected as well.

When it comes to the delay times between the shutter button being pressed and the photo being captured, the Digimax S500 recorded average times. For a single photo it took 0.35 seconds. For five photos the time was 10.45 seconds. Turning on the flash increased the times to 0.55 seconds for a single photo and 13 seconds exactly for five photos.

You can compare this camera to other models by taking a look at the Shutter Lag Comparison Table.

The 3x optical zoom lens has a focal length equivalent to 35 - 105mm in 35mm format. 5x digital zoom is available too. For close up work the camera can focus from 5cm away from the subject.

For composing your photos there is a 2.4 inch LCD screen. This is made up of around 112,000 pixels.

The flash unit works for up to 3m. This falls to 2.5m when the zoom lens is in use. The flash modes are: Auto, Auto & Red-eye reduction, Fill-in flash, Slow sync, Flash off.

To help with picture taking there are a small number of scene modes. These are Night, Portrait, Children(in Mode Dial), Landscape, Close-up, Sunset, Dawn, Backlight, Fireworks and Beach & Snow. Whenever you select a scene the camera will use what it considers to be the optimum settings for the type of shot.

There are a variety of effects you can take advantage of. These include being able to change the sharpness levels, add colour (B&W, Sepia, Red, Blue, Green, Negative, RGB), using picture frames, create composite shots and highlight areas of a photo. A self timer can be used as well. The delay time can be set to either two or ten seconds. Continuous shooting is another feature available to you.

More advanced features are metering (Multi, Spot), ISO (Auto, 50,100, 200, 400), white balance (Auto, Daylight, Cloudy, Fluorescent_H, Fluorescent_L, Tungsten, Custom) and exposure compensation (±2EV (0.5EV steps). In manual mode you can select the shutter speed and set the aperture. Shutter speeds work in the range work in the range 8 - 1/1,500 seconds and the aperture can be set to F2.8 - F7.1(Wide), F4.9 - F12.4(Tele).

All the cables and software you need to connect the camera to a computer, compatible printer and television set are supplied.

You can shoot movies up to the capacity of the memory card. These can be at a maximum resolution of 640 x 480 pixels and a top speed of 30 frames per second. Sound can be recorded, but zoom can only be applied before you start recording.

The Digimax S500 can also be used purely as a voice recorder. The maximum recording time is one hour. You can also add ten second sound clips to photos you have already taken.

It was quite easy to find my way around the Digimax S500. The camera is not overburdened with buttons and controls and everything appears to be in the right place.

You can pick up the Samsung Digimax S500 for around £85. This compares to the Fuji Finepix A500 (£60), Canon Powershot A460 (£85) and Sony DSC S500(£105).

O.K. the Digimax S500 is not a super stylish, pocket sized digital camera, but I like its simple, unfussy design. There is a grip on the front to help you hold the camera steady. You can buy either a black or silver version. It weighs in at 136g and has dimensions of 96.8 x 61.8 x 26.4 mm.

All you need to run the camera are two AA batteries. Two alkaline batteries are supplied with the camera.

Samsung has built 20 megabytes of storage into the Digimax S500. Therefore a memory card is not normally supplied. It is compatible with SD memory cards. I was able to take 16 photos before the internal memory was full. This should be enough to give the camera a quick test run.

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Ease of use
No red eye in portrait test
Smart design
Manual exposure mode

Photos could be sharper
Struggles when light gets low

The Samsung Digimax S500 is a fairly typical example of an entry level digital camera. Picture quality is not perfect, but if you are looking for a step up in all round quality you will also need to consider paying more as well. The camera scores well for ease of use, has a pleasant design and a manual exposure mode thrown in too.

Front View

Back View

Top View

Sample Menus

Description:	5 megapixels and a 3x zoom lens
Ease of Use:	8
Features:	8
Colour:	7
Macro:	7
Indoors:	7
Value for Money:	8
Style:	8
Movie Mode:	8
Image Quality:	7
Build Quality:	8
Total:	76
Verdict:	The Samsung Digimax S500 is one of the cheaper compact digital cameras. I found it easy to use and it also have a manual exposure mode to give you a bit of extra control. I also like the unfussy design the camera has.
Review Date:	April 2007
Click for:	Specification Sample Images Features

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Nikon Coolpix L19	81
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Although every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of the information on this site, please make sure you double check the feature set and specification at the point of purchase.

Samsung Digimax S500