| Product: |
Samsung Digimax S600 |
| Date: |
24/03/07 (125 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: Cheap, big screen, good pix
Disadvantages: clunky look
Enjoying a relaxing lunch, sitting outside in the warm October sun with my little 3-month old daughter, I’m about to show a friend some snaps of the baby. I reach for my handbag for my digital camera and suddenly go cold. My bag’s not there. Frantically, I cast my eyes about, looking in unlikely places. Perhaps I absent-mindedly shoved it in the nappy sack (post-natal hormones may be used as an excuse for the whole gamut of eccentricities); perhaps I left it at home. But no, of course, it’s been half-inched. What did I lose? Wallet, money, mobile of two weeks :o(, house keys, business keys, camera. Umbrella. Small round tin of Vaseline with Aloe Vera which I can’t buy here in Bulgaria. I weep.
Still, I am an eternally happy person, and can always find the best in an icky situation. I resolve to drown my sorrows in some retail therapy. New phone, new camera. (New locks too, but they fail to excite me I’m afraid).
I’d lost a rather cheap but funky Samsung Digimax 400 (reviewed earlier on here) and quite liked the feel of the thing and had got used to the menus. Simply replacing the camera with the same model would not have been in the slightest bit therapeutic, so an upgrade was in order, which was my main reason for choosing the S600. That and the fact that the salesman was quite sexy, there was a special offer that day and I couldn’t afford any of the others.
I was mightily pleased with my purchase though, and have had five months or so of great fun with it. Of course, having a beautiful and ever changing baby to snap every day just adds to the pleasure of having a digital camera, but I do feel this camera is rather good. Let me give you a guided tour.
***What are all these buttons and things?***
At first sight, it’s not the prettiest or slimmest of cameras. It has an odd bulge on one side which looks like it might be housing one of those old-fashioned rolls of film, bizarrely. Actually, it’s your 2 AA batteries that sit inside this bulbous bit, and although I can’t say I like the design it has ceased to offend me. The backside, unlike my own, is both more attractive and more useful than the front. On the top, you will discover the on/off button, a circle switch to select the function you require (i.e. picture, video, audio, special effects), and the shutter button. One of the absolute best features of this camera is the screen size, which is something equivalent to having a wide screen TV in your living room. It’s a whopping 2.4”, which is twice as big as some cameras (not that size matters, boys, of course). Next to the screen you are equipped with 3 small buttons which fulfil all your needs regarding deletion, special effects and viewing pics. Bottom right you will find the ubiquitous circular multi-functional button, and there’s a toggle-style button at the top to use zoom or view your pictures as thumbnails. I’d recommend buying rechargeable AA batteries and having some spares, because they really don’t last long.
***Generally speaking, what fancy things does this camera do?***
All cameras take pictures, so I won’t go into too much detail about how to achieve the obvious. This camera will take videos, record audio (as a stand alone or as an accompaniment note to a piccie) and has all the usual gizmos like ugly frames that you’ll mess around with for 5 minutes then never ever use again. It comes with cable attachment so you can view everything on your TV, which I find quite scary. Suddenly, your previously acceptably sized mother-in-law looms at you so large you can see the pores on her nose and almost see microscopic creatures in those pores. The camera itself also has a speaker, so you can listen to your vids before you upload to the pc. The sound is quite tinny, but you get the general impression. There is a built in memory which will last you about 10 pictures, so you need to invest in a memory card. Mine is 512mb which some people might consider excessive, but it lets you take some very cute movies of your baby’s first crawl, for example. To be honest, when I bought my memory card I had no idea whether it was big or small, (I just obeyed the salesman), but I have since discovered that many people are jealous of it, so go on, get yourself one.
***Tell me more about taking pics, Vic.***
Using the swivel button on the top of the camera, you can choose Auto (the only one you need), or a variety of other “scenes” (kids, portrait, night-time, personalised etc). After taking a photo of the same subject with each of the different settings, I can confidently inform you that they are a load of nonsense. The pictures look exactly the same to me. Auto works perfectly fine for most subjects. Sometimes I use the macro button (press the south bit of the circular button on the back) which gives you a better focus on subjects which are very close (mother-in-law for example). I find the best pictures I take are those that I zoom afterwards. This camera lets you zoom x8, move NESW around the photo, and then you can trim to get a much better picture than you originally took. You can manually adjust the flash settings, if you can be bothered.
***And vids?***
It’s really easy making videos. Just choose the setting with a video camera icon and press the shutter once to start. You can pause and zoom during the recording, which adds endless dimensions to your film. During play back you can fast-forward or back, and (and this is my second most favourite bit about the kit) you can capture stills and turn them into photos without messing about on your pc. Just pause play back, press the E button, and a still is made. You can then zoom the still to preserve moments of history that would bring tears to your grandma’s eyes. With the 512mb memory card you can get about 5 minutes of top quality video (I’m not talking about your directing skills here though), or a stonking 52 minutes on lowest quality. That’s almost a movie (well, it’s an Eastenders Omnibus at any rate…)
***What fabulous extras come with it for my pc?***
You might be disappointed here. Aside from the CD to install the hardware, there’s nowt fancy. With my cheapo Digimax 400 I got some (admittedly naff) photo software. With this: Nada. But then I never used the cheapo software anyway, so who cares. Once you’ve installed the CD so your PC recognises the camera, attach with the provided USB and you get the normal Windows menu asking what you want to do with this drive: view, open, save etc. I just save the pictures/videos to my pc and the sum total of my editing amounts to rotating.
***Viewing my handiwork***
The large screen makes viewing a pleasure. Of course you can always opt for the slide show, which has endless variations for those with too much time on their hands. You can select the time interval between pictures, whether a new picture will appear from top left and float down like an angel or stride boldly into the centre of your screen. You can add sepia, black and white, red, green or blue or even make the picture look like a negative (WHY???) .
***Can you enlighten us about the manual?***
It’s short and sweet. The manual takes the approach that no-one is going to read it so it might as well save its breath. If you’re nervous, you can use it for the set-up stages. For learning about the camera, playing with it will teach you much faster.
***Numbers for Nerds***
Video:
Frame rate: 15 or 30 FPS
Metering: Multi or Spot
OSD Info: Full or Basic or LCD Save
Size: 160x120, 320x240, 640x480
Photo:
Size: 1024x768, 1600x1200, 2048x1536, 2272x1704, 2592x1944, 2816x2112
Quality: Normal, fine, super-fine
Zoom 5.8-17.4mm
6 Mega Pixels
***Sum up in 10 words:***
Good screen, easy menus, a bit chunky, but worth it.
Price: around £90
Summary: Good all round camera
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