Samsung Digimax i70 Review

The Samsung Digimax i70 is a 7 megapixel digital camera with a 3x optical zoom lens. The design of the Digimax i70 is somewhat different to a typical digital camera. This is because the whole outer shell of the body slides out to the side. This unveils the camera's controls. It can also be used as an MP3 player.

Outdoor 1 (Medium Zoom)
One of the first things I look for in any photograph is the sharpness of the photo. Sadly in this instance focusing is below par, leading to a photo that is some way below average. The camera handles the glare from the sun well, but in my opinion this is of secondary importance to the lack of sharpness.

Outdoor 2 (No Zoom)
Hmmm… It's not looking good. Cameras do tend to struggle with this shot. The Digimax i70 certainly finds it difficult. Areas under the trees are very dark and again the sharpness of the photo falls below my required standard.

Outdoor 3 (Maximum Zoom)
By now I think you probably know what I'm going to say. Over the past week or so I have been reviewing digital cameras from Canon and Sony. Compared to those two brands all three outdoor photos are nowhere near sharp enough.

Outdoor Portrait
All three portrait shots were disappointing too. I had a number of goes at the outdoor portrait using different settings. The best one had a white balance setting of cloudy. As with other photos taken with the Digimax i70 it is darker than I would like to see.

Indoor Portrait with Flash
Turning the flash on usually sorts out indoor focusing problems, as long as the light is not too bad. In this instance the Digimax i70 still struggles with focusing. This is a shame as the sliding lens cover takes the flash unit away from the lens and cuts down the risk of the dreaded red eye.

Indoor Portrait without Flash
With the flash off, the camera struggles once again. There is not enough light for the camera to focus properly. All three portrait shots were taken with face detection turned on. This usually helps the camera to focus and produce sharper images than this camera has managed.

Colours
I like the colours the Digimax i70 produces. Perhaps the blues the camera produces can be a bit on the strong side, but the test photos look well balanced in terms of colour.

Macro
The macro shot stands up well when compared to other digital cameras. It is not quite up with the very best, but it is an above average shot. In this case the camera has no problems with lighting and the photo is sharp and clear.

ISO 400
Oh dear! This camera is just not working for me. Recently I have detected an improvement in picture quality at higher ISO levels. Here I cannot see anything other than a picture with a lot of noise.

ISO 1000
Once you get to this ISO level there is nearly always a lot of noise in the shot. Even so the Digimax i70 has very high noise levels. Colours also begin to look a mess.

Overall
Well what can I say? I just haven't managed to get along with the Digimax i70 at all.

I was able to take a single shot in 0.43 seconds and five shots in 13.98 seconds. Although not dreadful I like cameras to post faster times than these.

With the flash turned on times increase to 1.60 seconds for a single photo and 16.97 seconds for five. The time taken for a single photo is a concern.

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

As noted at the top this camera is a bit different with its sliding body. It is available in four colours: pink, gold, black and silver. You do need to take care to ensure you do not put a finger across the lens when taking a photo.

89.7 X 61 X 21.5mm

195g

Lithium ion (supplied with charging cable).

About 10mb of storage have been built into the camera. I was only able to take one photo before the memory was full. What's more you cannot shoot video on the internal memory. The camera is compatible with SD cards

Click here to save money on SD cards.

Good. This is an area where I had no problems with the Digimax i70.

I can't think of any!

Picture quality - small internal memory / no memory card supplied - easy to put finger over lens when taking a photo.

Before I wrote this review I checked out the Samsung website and noticed they had received a prestigious reward for this camera. I believe this relates to the design. Reading back my review I realise I have given the Samsung Digimax i70 a bit of a kicking. There is not much else I can add really. I was disappointed with the sharpness of the photos and also felt some of the photos were on the dark side too. Therefore I feel unable to recommend this camera.

Front View

Back View

Top View

Sample Menus

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 i70