Samsung Digimax S800 (Silver)
Manufacturer: Samsung Part number: DIGIMAX-S800SLV
- More product information:
- Editors' review
- User reviews
- Specifications
- Accessories
- Manufacturer info
- Bottom Line:
- The Samsung Digimax S800 has tons of controls for its price range, but confusing menus and poor image quality outweigh these advantages.
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Where to buy
| store | customer rating | inventory | tax & shipping | price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Amazon.com Marketplace |  | In stock | Enter zip code to get total price: Price +Tax +Shipping =Total price | as of 11/08/2009 |
| PaylessMerchandise.com | Not yet rated | In stock | as of 11/08/2009 |
CNET editors' review
Samsung Digimax S800 (Silver) price range: $99.95 - $144.99
- Reviewed by: Philip Ryan
- Reviewed on: 06/19/2006
- Released on: 04/15/2006
The good: Manual exposure control; RGB intensity controls; relatively low price.
The bad: Confusing menus; no aperture- or shutter-priority mode; exposure adjustments in 1/2-stop instead of 1/3-stop increments reduce degree of control.
The bottom line: The Samsung Digimax S800 has tons of controls for its price range, but confusing menus and poor image quality outweigh these advantages.
Measuring 3.9 by 2.4 by 1.1 inches and weighing just 6 ounces, the Digimax S800 should fit comfortably in a jacket pocket, and its curved grip makes it easy to hold. The sparse, silver-and-gray look won't turn any heads but isn't ugly either. Its 3X optical, 35mm-to-105mm (35mm equivalent), f/2.8-to-f/5.1 zoom lens extends outward from the camera's front when powered up and retracts when turned off.
The power button, the mode dial, and the shutter release reside atop the camera, while the zoom rocker, a four-way-plus-menu/OK control pad, and three other control buttons occupy the right side of the camera's back next to the 2.4-inch LCD. The zoom rocker sits about 0.25 inch too far to the right for comfort, though the curved indent underneath it provides a perfect spot for your thumb. The three control buttons let you enter play mode; adjust exposure compensation and access settings such as ISO, white balance, and RGB intensity; and access other options, such as color modes, photoframe overlays, stitch-assist modes, and framing guides to help you line up your subjects. This last button is labeled with an E for effects, while the exposure compensation button is labeled with plus and minus symbols.
The problem is that most manufacturers place options such as white balance and ISO in the regular menu. Not only that, since the camera defaults to show current settings on the LCD (a good thing), including ISO, it's hard to notice that the exposure compensation button gives you access to adjust this and other settings. Furthermore, when in full manual mode, you have to press exposure compensation twice to access these settings--again, not very intuitive.
Still, we were happy to see a full manual exposure mode. Not many point-and-shoot cameras let you select both aperture and shutter speed. Strangely, the Samsung Digimax S800 doesn't offer shutter- or aperture-priority modes, though it includes program and full auto modes as well as 10 scene presets. While it doesn't cover quite as many as some of its competitors, this Samsung takes care of all the basic modes, such as portrait, night, landscape, and sunset. There's even one called Dawn, in case you end up partying all night after shooting that sunset.
Exposure compensation covers a range of plus or minus 2EV in 1/2-stop increments. Most cameras offer 1/3-stop increments, for a finer degree of control. Similarly, the Digimax S800's manual shutter and aperture adjustments use 1/2-stop steps, though again, that's still more control than most cameras in this price range. If you really want to be safe, you can set the S800 to automatically bracket exposures, in which case it will shoot three shots in succession: one normally exposed, one at 0.5EV, and one at minus 0.5EV. Metering options include multi, which averages readings from throughout the image area with an emphasis on the middle, and spot, which measures only the center of the image.
Perfomance was mixed in our lab tests. The camera took a somewhat fast 2.3 seconds to power up and capture its first image, but once it started up, it took 2.4 seconds between shots without flash and 3.3 seconds with flash turned on. The shutter lag was a speedy 0.6 second in high-contrast situations and 1.1 seconds in low-contrast lighting. Continuous shooting was sluggish, capturing 28 VGA-size JPEGs in 30.4 seconds for an average of 0.92fps, and 27 8-megapixel JPEGs in 32.1 seconds for an average of 0.84fps.
The LCD partially washed out in bright sunlight, though it was still possible to see enough to frame our images. It gained up in low light just enough to frame the image, though not as much as some of the LCDs we've seen lately. The flash is rated to provide even coverage out to about 10 feet with ISO in auto mode.
Automatic white balance produced very warm, yellowish images with our lab's tungsten lights, while the tungsten white-balance setting had a noticeably bluish cast. Thankfully, the manual setting produced neutral results, though the audience for these cameras is not very likely to set a manual white balance. Given that even Olympus's dirt-cheap FE-series cameras manage to provide a neutral white balance in auto mode, we don't understand why it should be so difficult for this camera, although it does so many things that those Olympus FEs can't even dream of. In natural daylight, the Digimax S800's automatic white balance did a good job of neutralizing colors, which were natural-looking and well saturated.
Even at ISO 50 (the lowest setting possible with this camera), some noise was visible in our test images, though it was very minor and remained so at ISO 100. At ISO 200, noise was very noticeable, causing even moderately dark colors to become mottled with splotches of varying lightness and colors, though many finer details were still unobscured. By ISO 400, the noise overwhelmed lots of detail, resulting in images unfit for print.
Exposures were generally accurate, though images were slightly soft and had noticeable fringing in highlights, especially with backlit subjects. We also noticed JPEG artifacting, which lent a choppy look to some curved edges.
Samsung's Digimax S800 suffers the same fate as so many inexpensive, high-resolution cameras: the drawbacks of excessive noise and image artifacts overshadow the camera's many useful features.
User reviews
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looked good at first
by js43512 on June 26, 2006
Pros: nice size,good price
Cons: bad pictures
Summary: I bought one, printed the shots, back it went! horrible noise problems. there are much better to be had. get a Sony or even Fugifilm
Summary: I bought one, printed the shots, back it went! horrible noise problems. there are much better to be had. get a Sony or even Fugifilm
1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.
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good camera
by dreamie69 on May 11, 2006
Pros: nice picture, movie functions, quick print
Cons: nothing i can think of
Summary: This 8.1 megapixel camera has 3x optical zoom and 2.4 inch LCD screen.
Pretty nice picture qualities and contains nice movie functions which you can use to record / ...Summary: This 8.1 megapixel camera has 3x optical zoom and 2.4 inch LCD screen.
Pretty nice picture qualities and contains nice movie functions which you can use to record / edit movie similar to camcorder.
Other interesting feature is a quick print button which can be used for easy picture printing.2 out of 4 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Don't Buy waste of money at any price
by Ltracer on November 17, 2007
Pros: Has name Samsung
Cons: Flash does not work
Summary: Bought right out of the box & the flash does not work plus it is a battery hog.
I am in the process of sending it back. Also bought a ...Summary: Bought right out of the box & the flash does not work plus it is a battery hog.
I am in the process of sending it back. Also bought a iSonic Snapbox DC 532 5Meg for $74 & it runs circles around the Samsung S800 & the flash works. -
Good & Bad
by rci_2980 on August 30, 2007
Pros: A lot of features, & frames built in for pictures
Cons: Images "not good" for close work, close ups :(
Summary: I had a canon, 3.1 meg. it it took better close up pictures. This samsung, has great features, but quality isn't there for close-up pictures. I like the ...
Summary: I had a canon, 3.1 meg. it it took better close up pictures. This samsung, has great features, but quality isn't there for close-up pictures. I like the move camera that can zoom in for better shots. I found the sound sometimes blanks out though. I would not buy another one.
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Not a bad camera, especially for the low price
by ls35 on June 29, 2007
Pros: Easy to hold hold, Good quality outdoor pictures, MPEG-4 video, many funcy picture takning functions
Cons: Confusing buttons, hard to have good indoor pictures without flash, significant noise in pictures at ISO 100 and above, no optic viewfinder
Summary: CNET rated it low. Actually, it is not a bad camera at all.
I own Digital SLRs and a few digital point&shoot cameras including Canon G7 and Sony ...Summary: CNET rated it low. Actually, it is not a bad camera at all.
I own Digital SLRs and a few digital point&shoot cameras including Canon G7 and Sony V3. The main reason for me to buy S800 is its size and its price. The outdoor picture quality from s800 is not as good as pictures from Canon G7 but not far away from pictures from Sony V3. Be sure to set ISO at 50 to get good pictures.
A good thing for S800 is its MPEG-4 video. The size of MPEG-4 file is much smaller than the video format used in cameras from Canon, Sony and many other camera makers, which means you can record much longer video in the memory card with the same size. During recording video, you can zoom the lens, but the sound is muted while zooming.
S800 has build-in photo frames to let you take pictures with any build-in frame. S800 also has build-in picture composite function which let you take 2, 3, or 4 smaller pictures in one picture. Although those funcy picture taking functions could be done in most picture manipulating softwares, it is more enjoyable to have it in camera for the fun of whole family.
To take indoor picture, the flash is necessary as you have to keep the ISO at 50 in order to get pictures with related low level of noise. Maybe you can use ISO 100 but no more than that. The buttons are confusing and it took some time for me to find which one to adjust which.
The bottom line, it is not a bad camera. Bottom price, but picture quality-wise and function-wise, it is not at the bottom. Overall, I'd rank it in the middle among the digital point&shoot cameras.Updated
I didn't mean to rate it 10 out of 10, I'd like to rate it 7 out of 10. Sorry. -
this is the third Samung Digimax Cam AAAA GREAT
by thunderbir-d on June 1, 2007
Pros: 10/10 for me , it is so easy to use , my mum can use it
Cons: none , not be fooled into buying other products
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GREAT VALUE THAT YOU WON'T BEAT
by lbinaley on March 3, 2007
Pros: Good feature set, 8.1MP! produces good quality shots, good compensation for moving targets
Cons: battery life POOR with Alkalines BUT issue fixed with good NiMH. I use Duracell 2650 mAH
Summary: This is my 3rd digital Camera. Mustek (don't laugh) --> Fuji FinePix --> now the Samsung Digimax S800. I am no authority on photography but have taken ...
Summary: This is my 3rd digital Camera. Mustek (don't laugh) --> Fuji FinePix --> now the Samsung Digimax S800. I am no authority on photography but have taken and developed enough digital photos of my family to appreciate a good shot by a good no hassle point and shoot digital camera. I took a chance on this Camera for $99 from Amazon. Suffice to say I am MORE than pleased with purchase. Thus far, I have taken about 300 pics.
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Great pictures, low price.
by ccafe on February 26, 2007
Pros: Pictures look stunning. Great intro camera at less then $200.
Cons: Battery life using standard AA batteries. Ok video, little noisy.
Summary: This would be a great camera if they wouldn't package it with standard AA batteries. I experienced low battery problems within 15 minutes of usage. I took the first ...
Summary: This would be a great camera if they wouldn't package it with standard AA batteries. I experienced low battery problems within 15 minutes of usage. I took the first camera back thinking it was defective. The 2nd had the same problems.
Standard AA batteries just can't handle the high power loads this camera demands from them. The best advice I can give is go out and buy rechargeable NiMH 2500 mAh batteries. After an hour of usage the batteries are still going strong.
Just for taking pictures I give this camera a 10. Since Samsung packaged it with poor performing batteries I couldn't give it more then an 8. The video looks great on 640x480@30fps but the other settings made the video look jagged and blurred. It can be a little noisy, but since I didn't buy it as a camcorder it doesn't bother me. Over all I would give it a 7.5. -
Excellent Camera for the money
by g17 on December 15, 2006
Pros: Easy to use, takes great pictures, good battery life
Cons: none that I can find
Summary: I bought the Samsung and a Nikon with similar features and size at the same time as I wanted a good pocket camera and thought I would compare the two. ...
Summary: I bought the Samsung and a Nikon with similar features and size at the same time as I wanted a good pocket camera and thought I would compare the two. Long story short, the Nikon was returned. The Samsung takes great natural looking pictures indoors and out. CNET's review says "confusing features" but I say as a novice, I had no problems figuring it out taking both still and video shots and I haven't even read the manual yet. These are available as of today 12/15/06 at Sam's Club for $179. It uses 2 AA batteries and I have re-chargeables in it and have taken loads of pics without changing them yet....still has two bars in the meter. Another feature that I like is that you have to hold down the on/off button for about a second before it turns on which prevents accidental powering while in your pocket.
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Good price for its specs
by snobke on September 15, 2006
Pros: High resolution, nice zoom
Cons: confusing menus
Summary: I just bought the S800. I really like it, because it's a cheap camera for an 8 Megapixels. It does have confusing menus, as Cnet said, but I think ...
Summary: I just bought the S800. I really like it, because it's a cheap camera for an 8 Megapixels. It does have confusing menus, as Cnet said, but I think you should just get used to it. The optical zoom (3x) is normal for a camera these days.
As I said, the price-quality is a good reason to buy this camera. It makes good pictures, and you didn't even had to spend 300 euros!
Specifications
- Manufacturer: Samsung
- Part number: DIGIMAX-S800SLV
- Description: The Digimax S800 is a high-resolution digital camera that is equipped with a true-color filtered 8.1 mega-pixel CCD. You can use the Digimax S800 to produce even better images and take detailed photos for printing up to poster size. In addition, the Digimax S800 has a 3x optical and 5x digital zoom giving 15x total zoom when combined. The Digimax S800 has a large 2.4"LCD for improved contrast and color reproduction, allowing you to enjoy a wider and clearer image. The Digimax S800 has some intriguing special effect functions - including Highlight, Photo Frame, and Composite Shot - that give you unique, and sometimes amusing, shooting experiences beyond conventional picture-taking. You can access each of these special effects with just one touch of the "E" button. When it is set to Auto Mode, the Digimax S800 automatically adjusts the shooting distance and focus from between 5cm to infinity, helping the picture taker to get better pictures more easily. The user does not need to activate the Macro function separately in order to take pictures as close as 5cm. The powerful video capability of the Digimax S800 delivers a "Camcorder like" experience. For a more enhanced movie shooting experience, the Digimax S800 uses MPEG-4, the high-compression high-quality video format, which can record for up to 3 - 4 times longer than the traditional video formats used in many other digital cameras. With powerful video recording in VGA (640 x 480) at 30fps, it provides a wider screen view and clearer video quality. These movies can even be viewed on the TV. The Digimax S800 has a Movies Stabilizer function, which helps maintain steady recording of a subject by means of automatic detection and correction of lateral and vertical camera movements of the camera. The Successive Recording function of the Digimax S800, which is based on exclusive Samsung technology, allows you to pause and resume video recording as desired and merge those multiple movie into a single file. For easier editing of movies, the Digimax S800 allows you to select and save only the desired part into a new file during playback, on the camera. The Digimax S800 also allows you to capture a still image during video playback. The family-friendly mode dial - with Night, Portrait and Children modes - makes it easier to get great shots of the family by giving in stand access to the appropriate mode for each individual situation. Children mode, with its open aperture and fast shutter speeds, lets you 'freeze' children in fast moving action shots. Night mode automatically uses the slow synchronization function to help you get clearer and brighter pictures at night. When using Portrait mode, you get more pleasing people pictures with improved red-eye reduction. The Digimax S800's print button makes direct printing easier than ever. Simply connect the S800 to any PictBridge compatible photo printer, press the illuminated print button and print! Also use the button to transfer images directly to a computer.
General
- Product Type Digital camera
- Point-and-shoot highlights Video capture ability makes this camera ideal for social functions or vacation shots.
- Width 3.9 in
- Depth 1.1 in
- Height 2.4 in
- Weight 6 oz
- Enclosure Color Silver
Main Features
- Resolution 8.1 megapixels
- Color Support Color
- Optical Sensor Type CCD
- Total Pixels 8,300,000 pixels
- Effective Sensor Resolution 8,100,000 pixels
- Light Sensitivity ISO 50, ISO 100, ISO 200, ISO 400, ISO auto
- Digital Zoom 5 x
- Shooting Modes Frame movie mode
- Shooting Programs Sunset, Children, Dawn/dusk, Fireworks, Landscape, Back light, Beach/snow, Night scene, Portrait mode
- Special Effects Red, Blue, Soft, Green, Sepia, Vivid, Neutral, Negative, Black & White
- Max Shutter Speed 1/1500 sec
- Min Shutter Speed 8 sec
- Exposure Metering Spot, Multi-segment
- Exposure Modes Manual, Program, Automatic
- Exposure Compensation ±2 EV range, in 1/2 EV steps
- White Balance Custom, Presets, Automatic
- White Balance Presets Cloudy, Daylight, Tungsten light, Fluorescent light (cool white), Fluorescent light (warm white)
- Digital Video Format AVI
- Still Image Format JPEG
- TV Tuner None
- Video Capture AVI - 640 x 480, AVI - 640 x 480, AVI - 320 x 240, AVI - 320 x 240, AVI - 160 x 128, AVI - 160 x 128
Memory / Storage
- Flash Memory Flash - Integrated (soldered memory - 20 MB )
- Supported Flash Memory MultiMediaCard, SD Memory Card
- Floppy Drive None
- Image Storage Super-fine JPEG 3264 x 2488 : 4 - With 20MB built-in memory, Super-fine JPEG 3072 x 2304 : 5 - With 20MB built-in memory, Super-fine JPEG 2816 x 2112 : 6 - With 20MB built-in memory, Super-fine JPEG 2592 x 1944 : 7 - With 20MB built-in memory, Super-fine JPEG 2272 x 1704 : 9 - With 20MB built-in memory, Super-fine JPEG 2048 x 1536 : 11 - With 20MB built-in memory, Super-fine JPEG 1600 x 1200 : 19 - With 20MB built-in memory, Super-fine JPEG 1024 x 768 : 41 - With 20MB built-in memory, Super-fine JPEG 640 x 480 : 83 - With 20MB built-in memory, Fine JPEG 3264 x 2488 : 9 - With 20MB built-in memory, Fine JPEG 3072 x 2304 : 10 - With 20MB built-in memory, Fine JPEG 2816 x 2112 : 12 - With 20MB built-in memory, Fine JPEG 2592 x 1944 : 14 - With 20MB built-in memory, Fine JPEG 2272 x 1704 : 18 - With 20MB built-in memory, Fine JPEG 2048 x 1536 : 22 - With 20MB built-in memory, Fine JPEG 1600 x 1200 : 34 - With 20MB built-in memory, Fine JPEG 1024 x 768 : 69 - With 20MB built-in memory, Fine JPEG 640 x 480 : 89 - With 20MB built-in memory, Normal JPEG 3264 x 2488 : 13 - With 20MB built-in memory, Normal JPEG 3072 x 2304 : 15 - With 20MB built-in memory, Normal JPEG 2816 x 2112 : 17 - With 20MB built-in memory, Normal JPEG 2592 x 1944 : 21 - With 20MB built-in memory, Normal JPEG 2272 x 1704 : 22 - With 20MB built-in memory, Normal JPEG 2048 x 1536 : 32 - With 20MB built-in memory, Normal JPEG 1600 x 1200 : 41 - With 20MB built-in memory, Normal JPEG 1024 x 768 : 83 - With 20MB built-in memory, Normal JPEG 640 x 480 : 104 - With 20MB built-in memory
Camera Flash
- Camera Flash Built-in flash
- Flash Modes Auto mode, Fill-in mode, Slow synchro, Flash OFF mode, Red-eye reduction
- Red Eye Reduction Yes
- Effective Flash Range 8 in - 10 ft
- Features AF illuminator
Lens System
- Type Zoom lens - 7.4 mm - 22.2 mm - F/2.8-5.1
- Focal Length 7.4 mm - 22.2 mm
- Focal Length Equivalent to 35mm Camera 35 - 105 mm
- Focus Adjustment Automatic
- Auto Focus TTL contrast detection
- Min Focus Range 31.5 in
- Macro Focus Range 4-80cm
- Lens Aperture F/2.8-5.1
- Optical Zoom 3 x
- Zoom Adjustment Motorized drive
Additional Features
- Self Timer Yes
- Self Timer Delay 2 sec, 10 sec
- Additional Features DPOF support, Direct print, Audio recording, Auto power save, Date/time stamp, Built-in speaker, Resizing an image, PictBridge support, USB 2.0 compatibility, Digital image rotation
Display
- Type LCD display - 2.4 in - Color
- Display Form Factor Built-in
- Display Format 112,000 pixels
Digital Player (Recorder)
- Type None
Microphone
- Type Microphone - Built-in
Connections
- Connector Type 1 x USB, 1 x Composite video/audio output, 1 x Docking station
- Expansion Slot(s) 1 x SD Memory Card
Software
- Software Drivers & Utilities, Samsung Digimax Master
System Requirements for PC Connection
- Operating System Support MS Windows 98, MS Windows ME, MS Windows XP, MS Windows 2000, MS Windows 98 SE, Apple Mac OS 9.0 or later, Apple Mac OS X 10.0 - 10.4
- Peripheral Devices USB port, CD-ROM drive, SVGA monitor
Miscellaneous
- Cables Included 1 x A/V cable, 1 x USB cable
Battery
- Supported Battery AA
- Supported Battery 2 x ( Included )
CNET Labs' Benchmarks
- Labs information All values are expressed in seconds. Please visit our labs information page for information on how digital cameras are tested.
- CNET Labs Flash shot to shot time 3.3
- CNET Labs Shot to shot time typical 2.4
- CNET Labs Shutter lag bright 0.6
- CNET Labs Shutter lag dim 1.1
- CNET Labs Typical burst speed 0.8
- CNET Labs Wake up time 2.3
Accessories
Manufacturer info
- Samsung
- Manufacturer profile
- Browse Samsung products on Shopper.com
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- Website: http://www.samsungusa.com/
- Address:
105 Challenger Road, Ridgefield Park, NJ 07660 - Phone: 1-800-726-7864
- Fax: 1-973-601-6001
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