Samsung Digimax A5

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Samsung Digimax A5

Review of the Samsung Digimax A5

The Samsung Digimax A5 is a good quality, compact camera. 5 megapixels is excellent for a point and shoot camera. It has a 3.0x optical zoom and 4x digital zoom giving a combined zoom rating of 12x. This camera is suitable for beginners and more advanced users. It only comes with 32Mb Secure Digital card, so consider buying a 128Mb or 256Mb card. It does come with a charger and battery but not a case. See the list of accessories on the right for cases.

The LCD screen, at 1.8", is larger than on a lot of Samsung models and you can switch quickly between capture and playback modes. You can crop, rotate and revise colours on the camera.

You can record movies with sound. The Power Movie Clip function lets you shoot high quality VGA movie clips letting you shoot at either 30 or 15 frames per second of VGA quality video. You can shoot and store movie clips in different sizes up to 640 x 480. The Power Movie Clip also offers the ability to pause, fast forward and/or rewind the video right on the camera.

You can choose from 10 different Scene modes (Portrait, Children, Landscape, Close-up, Sunset, Dawn, Backlight, Fireworks, Beach & Snow and Text). If you are more advanced you can choose from aperture priority, shutter priority and fully manual shooting modes. A one touch manual function button lets you switch quickly and easily between manual, aperture priority and shutter priority modes. The 4cm Macro setting allows for extreme close-up photography.

The user interface facilitates access to the choice of advanced functions and capabilities contained within the camera. Choose from black & white, sepia and RGB colour effects. A bright, multi-function pilot lamp on the front of the camera lets you know the camera status by displaying a different colour to denote the function being performed (taking a picture, self timer, image upload, voice recording, etc).

The Samsung Digimax A5 is compatible with three different power sources, including two rechargeable formats (Li-ion and Ni-MH) as well as standard AAs. The Samsung Li-ion battery, I-Pack, provides enough power for roughly 290 shots, while the Samsung Ni-MH enables users to capture up to 350 images.

Features of the Samsung Digimax A5 include:

• Developed for "point and shoot" photographers looking for a solid camera with a full range of features
• 5 Megapixels
• 12X zoom - 3X optical, 4X digital
• 1.8" TFT LCD screen
• 4cm macro setting - for extreme close-ups
• 10 different scene modes: Portrait, Children, Landscape, Close-up, Sunset, Dawn, Backlight, Fireworks, Beach & Snow and Text
• High quality VGA movie clips at 30 frames per second
• Pause, fast forward and/or rewind the video right on the camera
• 16MB of internal memory with an SD/MMC slot for an additional 512MB of capacity
• 6 different image sizes, ranging from 640x480 to 2816x2112
• 3 different resolution settings - Superfine, Fine and Normal
• PictBridge technology allows for easy output directly to a printer via a USB connection
• Comprehensive software suite including ArcSoft Photo Impression, Digimax Viewer and Digimax Reader for storage, editing and output via a PC
• One-touch manual function button that allows switching between fully manual, aperture priority and shutter priority modes
• Editing capabilities: cropping, rotating and colour revisions on the camera
• Black & white, sepia and RGB colour effects
• Three different power sources: including two rechargeable formats (Li-ion and Ni-MH) and standard AAs
• Samsung Li-ion battery, I-Pack: approx. 290 shots
• Samsung Ni-MH battery: approx 350 images
• Manual picture taking and focusing functions
• Edit images on camera

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