this should really be a 4 1/2, but it does not give that option, so I rounded up since I like almost everything about the camera, and it is great for what I bought it for. I bought this lightweight small camera to keep in my purse-for those unexpected shots you want to take. I have a Sony Cypershot with a 12X optical that I normally use. The Sony is great for action shots and taking marching band shots from the bleachers. This one, I'm not sure could do that. It has a 3x optical, which is fine for zooming in on a person across the room, but not as far as into the football field. The in-camera zoom is ok for trimming, but I noticed it does lose some of the clarity on the shot.
The one drawback to this camera is the lag time between shots. If you like capturing shot after shot quickly-avoid this camera. However, if you are someone who generally takes shots of people at birthday parties, or objects on your vacation, this might be a great camera for you. It is a decent camera for the price. For what I wanted it for, it is perfect.
Ok, to sum up:

PROS
Small, lightweight
Good picture quality
Can take an SD card up to 4GB (That's A LOT!)
Easy to use
Inexpensive-goes on sale sometimes for around $100
Can take rechargeable batteries (I recommend for ALL digital cameras)
Video capabilities
Software compatable with older Windows(in case you need that)

CONS
Lag time between shots
In Camera Zoom loses picture quality

As you can see, I like most of the features. If you are looking for a decent, inexpensive point and shot type camera, then this might be the one for you.

I bought this camera for 99 bucks. Its pretty good. The batteries it comes with only last 10 minutes,problably less. So I went out a bought a 2 hour battery charger from Wolf Camera. It costed me 24 bucks and it came with 4 rechargeable batteries. I strongly recommend the charger because you will spend about 15 dollars every week for special AA batteries. The employee at the store told recommended it to me and he told hes used the same batteries for four years now. But anyways, you have to spend a little bit of time learning how to work the camera. The pics come out pretty good. I recommend the a 512mb card or bigger. You can set the photo quality settings it determines how many pix can record on your memory card.

I like the camera, Ive gotten used to it, but I still have to figure out somethings, but all in all, this camera is well worth it.

Using the two included Panasonic alkaline batteries the unit came from, I ran out of juice after taking a dozen pictures and transferring one (as test) to my computer. My old, battered, taped-together Nikon Coolpix 5200 (does everybody have trouble with broken battery doors on Coolpix units?) *never* gave me a low-battery warning. The rechargeable battery seems to run forever - I recharge it "preventatively" every 5-6 weeks! The Samsung may be OK for the money in other respects, but this kind of power management snafu pretty much turned me off the brand altogether.

i took beautiful photos using this camera, but the recording phase (using 6 MP format) was way too slow, that i miss taking the next picture, beuase the camera was still recording . i changed the resolution to 3MP, and the (recording) time shorten a bit. anybody know how to overcome this problem?
thanks.

We bought our German exchange student a digital camera for Christmas. It was a different make, and it lasted all of four months before heading to the great recycling center in the sky. When I discovered the camera we had bought only had a 3 month warranty, I felt badly and decided to get her a replacement that might actually last for a decent period of time.

After researching various cameras, I discovered this particular camera. It was the right price, had similar features to the one we had previously given her and it had a 1 year warranty. Also, the warranty is good worldwide, allowing her to get warranty service in Germany if it becomes necessary. That is not a common feature in other makes.

After several weeks of use, she is thrilled with the way it works. It takes wonderful pictures for a point and shoot, and is constructed of far better materials than similar priced cameras. I will admit that it does take a little while to record a picture, and it does inhale batteries, but these are problems that we saw in her previous camera, and I think are a function of the price.

Overall, for the price and type of camera, we are extremely happy and would buy another Samsung camera in a flash. If you are looking for a sophisticated camera, look elsewhere, but if you want a quick point and shoot camera, this is an ideal choice.

It is amazing all the functions Samsung packs into this little camera--probably more than you will ever use. The only downsides are the lack of an optical viewfinder (the kind you look through) for composing in bright sunlight, and the lack of a printed manual. The printed one that comes with it only covers the minimal basics, while the Adobe on-computer manual is very long and difficult to read, since you constantly paging back and forth. It gets very tiring and discouraging after a while.

I just bought this camera (red version) for my son's birthday. We used the batteries that came with it, they died right away. We have since put in at least 6 sets of new batteries, and they all have gone on to the big waste dump in the sky within an hour. Being that its been only two weeks, I am returning this piece of junk to the store from which it came this weekend, and giving my son the money to buy what he wants.

My recommendation: Spend a little time looking for a better quality camera than this one. Pictures were good though, at least the ones we managed to take before it died.

I take pictures of cars for car dealers for a living and this camera is just what we needed, something CHEAP that takes very good photos. The battery life, unlike some other statements, is great for me. I can go all day, usually around 600 shots and not have to swap out batteries. I use 2500mA batteries from Wal-Mart and have used the same set for two years now, every single day! I did manage to drop the camera pretty hard on a parking lot and the battery door flew open and batteries flew out across the lot, but when I put them back in, the camera worked fine and this was a month ago. It did damage the nice red finish, but that's not too important to me. The 2.5" LCD is a little hard to see in direct sunlight, but not nearly as bad as my old Canon Powershot camera. Indoor performance is not so great though, so if you're wanting something to do indoor portraits or lots of flash photography, you better not get this one.

One of the best point and shoot digital cameras I've ever used. The photo editing features are phenomenal too.

I'm considering returning this camera.

Functions are not so bad considering the price.
But, battery life is really short. It's maybe because this camera does not work on the voltage which is a little lower than full.

I could use the battery battered from this camera for the other camera.

My sister and I bought this camera for our dad and he loves it. Apparently it works really well, is accessible if you aren't a super techy person, and it looks slick.

I bought this for my mom for Mother's Day and I'm disappointed. The picture quality just isn't there, all the pictures feel a little flat. Not blurry, per se, just never crisp. That being the primary function of a camera, I can't get too up on this thing. I have a 5 year old Nikon Coolpix 2100 that I paid the same price for back then (87 bucks on sale) that takes better photos than this. Cheap optics I suppose.

The battery life seems to be fairly limited as well and the response time seems a tad slow. If an inanimate object could have a pall of malaise, this camera would.

Everything works, and nothing's bad enough to make me feel ripped off, but by no means is this little thing impressive, certainly not as great as what some of the other reviewers have made it out to be. It is what it is, I suppose, but I'm still a little bummed.

Bad battery performance, Audio recording turn off when changing zoom, when zoom stop, audio recording turn on again. Anyway nothing better for that price, excellent product.

I was very disappointed with the battery life when I bought this camera. They only lasted about a half hour. But I found out that you really need the 2500mah NiMh rechargeable batteries. They last forever. The outdoor pictures are very crisp and clear, especially if you put the sharpness all the way up. The indoor pictures though, I'd say there about average. The photo-editing system on this camera is amazing once you figure out how to use it. Overall I'd say this is a perfect point and shoot camera, especially for the price of $99.

Quality of the picture is average for a point and shoot. User friendliness is average. With only the screen to frame your picture bright sunlight can be a problem.

The biggest downside to this camera is battery life. Eight pictures and the camera shuts down. Upon checking the battery with a battery indicator power indicator they still register high to normal power. So..if you aren't taking more than a dozen pictures you might be able to accomplish that feat with just two batteries.

Great shots, but carry spare batteries. It doesn't tell you when the batteries are low, just all of a sudden, no juice. But the pictures are great! Easy to use, and download. The download needs the special enclosed USB cable instead of a standard USB cable. I just take out the SD card and put it in my reader.

I bought this camera because they didn't have the Kodak camera that I wanted in stock...I am so disappointed in this camera the battery life is so short I wouldn't recommend this camera to anyone I will stick to Kodak.

I have a Sony H5 which is a great camera, but pretty expensive (not to mention cumbersom to carry around). I bought my Samsung about 3 months ago to take out at night or boating...places I want to take pictures, but don't need the zoom or quality of a 7mp camera. It works great!. The pictures have all turned out well. It's fairly easy to use and while not as small as some compact cameras, it fits nicely in my purse or pocket. The only thing that I was disappointed about is the lack of a traditional viewvinder.

This is by far the worst digital camera I've ever used. I would avoid this product like the plague if I could try again; I absolutely hate it.

First major problem is battery life. It's awful. I was trying to take pictures in a cave I was exploring on vacation, and we went through 3 sets of batteries (that's 6 AA batteries) in just 30 minutes. One pair of brand new Energizer batteries, right out of the packaging, was actually dead in 7 minutes. This is inexcusable, and to add insult to injury you can't plug the camera in and recharge rechargeable batteries, so you either spend more on batteries than you do on the camera every time you go on vacation, or you lug around a battery charger with you everywhere you go.

The battery life might be a little better if you turned off the digital view screen, but guess what? There is no optical view! You have no way of knowing what you're going to take a picture of with the digital view screen off.

The pictures all come out looking like total crap, you may very well get a 6 megapixel image, but that's only the number of pixels in the image, it says nothing about the quality. Pictures are grainy, blurry, and noisy. You almost never get a picture looking the way it did in the viewscreen after you snap the shot. The autofocus is so bad, turning it on is like applying the Blur filter in photoshop to your picture, and the manual focus isn't much better either, particularly with such an inaccurate viewscreen. Pictures invariably come out with an intense yellow or orange tint when they looked fine in the viewscreen, and changing no settings, taking the same shot 5-6 times you'll finally come out with a picture that has the colors you see with your eyes.

Because of the deplorable battery life, the camera will turn itself off after 3-4 minutes of inactivity, which would be a good feature, if it didn't take 30 seconds to boot up. The result: if you need to quickly turn the camera on and take a picture of something before you drive past it, or it stops happening, or any other situation where speed is a necessity, you completely miss the shot; but if you just keep the camera on in anticipation of taking the shot, the batteries will die almost instantly.

Using it to record video sucks down power even faster than the already obscene rate the camera consumes batteries. Even worse, every time you zoom in or out the camera completely cuts off all audio recording. Immagine taking a tour of something really interesting, your tour guide is explaining some history or other details to you, you zoom in on what he's talking about to get a better look, and when you go to look at the video after your vacation, there is just silence as you were zooming in and out. Would you be angry? I sure am!

My girlfriend has a 2.3 megapixel camera in her cell phone. Every single picture she took with it came out better than every picture I took with this camera, including inside a dark cave, where my flash should have drastically outperformed hers. At the end of the day, her cell phone still had power, where my camera had gone through 6 AA batteries in 30 minutes.

Do not buy this cheap piece of junk, unless you see it on eBay of course, which is where I'll be trying to get rid of it. ;-)

The camera is very stylish and esay to use. The pictures come out very clear. The only problem that I have found is that the batteries that come with it, only lasted me about 15 minutes after the first use and then they died. Your best bet is to buy rechargeable batteries from the get go to avoid this problem. Other then that for the price, a good buy.

I got this camera in June, and I've been very satisfied with it. It was about $100 dollars, which, compared to some cameras, is cheap for a digital camera, and I think it's worth every penny. It has a 2.5 " LCD screen, it takes videos, it is a very pretty green color and every person who has seen it has commented on how nice it looks, and youcan even edit pictures right on the camera! I was afraid that it wasn't going to work so good since it wasn't very expensive, but I was very surprised at how nicely it worked. It takes great pictures. The only complaint I have is that it sucks down batteries like crazy. I have to use lithium batteries; regular ones die in literally fifteen minutes. I would defnitely recommend this camera to anybody, it is easy to use and worth your money.

My son received this camera as a gift and he brought it along on vacation but he has been very disappointed by it.

The picture quality is terrible. My Kodak DX6490 is only 4mp (compared to this Samsung's 6mp) and the picture quality is so much better. The shot looks fine on the camera's screen...until you upload it to your computer and see what it really looks like. Grainy, blurry and "pixelated" shots are what you get.

No view finder makes it hard to see what you're aiming at when outdoors.

The worst feature about this camera is the way it wastes batteries. They have to be replaced about every 30 minutes. Also, there is no warning about "low battery." It just shuts down and dies.

If you rarely take pictures, you may be satisfied with this poor quality product for the price (although you'll spend more in batteries than on the camera itself.) If you care about taking beautiful pictures to preserve memories of trips, events, etc. then I suggest you skip this piece of junk...

At first, like many other reviewers, I was frustrated, even infuriated by the extremely short battery life and I seriously considered returning the camera. But then I played around with the settings a bit--guess what? Turning off the 'beeps' and fake shutter sound, as well as turning down the brightness of the LCD completely get rid of the high battery consumption problem.

I had a bad experience with the last digital camera I had (Casio--what a piece of nice-looking junk!) so I vowed not to spend a lot on my next camera (guess what, there is no correlation between how much you spend and how long a camera lasts--cheap or expensive consider yourself lucky to get two years from your camera--I have a sneaking suspicion this is built-in obsolescence, eg. Canon's infamous 'E18' error).

Well, this Samsung S630 (at a third of the price of the Casio or the Canon) is great so far; I primarily use it to take macro shots of graphics to use in my courses and the sharpness of the close-ups is excellent. The camera does good work in auto mode, or if you prefer to tinker with multiple settings, you can do that as well.

I also like the fact that this camera uses the AA batteries you can buy anywhere, not some proprietary battery type that only the manufacturer sells for beaucoups bucks.

Finally, I'm not a shill for Samsung. I just don't like getting ripped off, and I think that's what the bigger names in the camera business are doing. True, this camera is plastic, not brushed aluminium, and it's not as small as some, but I will gladly take reliability and low cost over stylishness/small size.

Si lo que estas buscando es una cámara que sea de uso cotidiano para cumpleaños, bautizos y fiestas de familia o con amigos, esta es la camara que buscabas, tiene buena resolución y el zoom me parece fabuloso. La vida de la bateria es muy corta pero compre un cargador SONY con 4 baterias AA de 2400mAh y la combinación es excelente, no soy adicto a la captura de imagenes y no es necesario llevar las de repuesto, aunque debido a la tremenda pantalla LCD de 2.5 pulgadas, es una tentación el ver las fotos desde la camara pues se pueden apreciar con gran calidad.
Es super liviana y sumamente practica de usar, puedes usar una memoria SD de hasta 4 Gb y con una de 1Gb es mas que suficiente. Si les preocupa la duración de la bateria, pues prueben que otra camara con la misma pantalla y un flash similar para que se den cuenta que es comun en este tipo de camaras.

I purchased this camera about a year ago for my home structural inspection work. The first time I took it out I had the camera in my pocket doing my normal stuff. When I pulled it out, the LCD screen was broken. The Samsung guys fixed it under warranty with no problems. I will give them one star for that.

Since getting it back from repair, I have had this camera pretty much stored in my camera bag, using it once for a family get-together. I did not need to otherwise use it because I got a Kodak EasyShare C653 to use when I sent the Samsung off for repair. The Kodak I have literally put through hell using it in dusty, muddy, spiderweb-infested crawlspaces. It lasted about 9 months with this abuse but died. When I pulled the Samsung out to used it, it failed the first time I pushed the Power button.

So, I encourage anyone reading this review to NOT purchase this camera. Although the price is cheap, the camera is junk, unless you want to pay that amount for a paperweight.

Most pictures are blurred, the camera is very sensitive to shake/vibration. Also most indoor photos are too dark/dim even with flash. The color calibartion is poor too. Don't spend money on this product. It was bought for one of my teens and she would not accept it. It was replaced with a canon that was 100 times better.

I suppose the camera is fine enough for a non-camera nerd, but for me, I felt the quality just wasn't there compared to other Samsung products I own. The bulge on the side of the lens is very big and the pictures on the internet don't really show that. Take my advice and if you are planning on buying this, go to an actual store and check it out in real life. I ended up sending it back without even trying it out because I was so unimpressed with the shape and size.

I work at a retail store that sells the Samsung S630, and I have yet to see any other model or brand that customers have had as much trouble with than this one (to the point that we took it off the shelves). Pictures look grainy and the quality is certainly lacking, but its major flaw is the poor manufacturing and reliability. After putting in a fresh set of AA batteries, the camera may take 2-25 pictures on average before depleting them completely. This has been the most prevalent complaint I've received, and I've done it myself. Also, the extending lens can be problematic and stay extended when the batteries die. Some of our customers have sent the camera to Samsung multiple times only to get it back and have it still 'broken'. If you have to buy this camera, buy a warranty with it, but it probably won't be long before you return it or redeem the warranty.

Lots of features for a small price! Easy to use right out of the box. The only problem I have with this camera is that it eats batteries, plan on purchasing a battery charger and rechargable batteries with the camera. I used 3 sets of alkaline batteries in about 10 days.

The only bad thing about this camera is how fast it eats batteries, other than that it is a great little camera.

For a camera with 6MP and a good LCD screen, this is a good buy. Pictures are crisp and the camera is easy to use. Does not get 5 stars because it's using batteries like crazy. I recently bought rechargeable ones for it and the situation improved, but I only use the camera occasionally (weekends, for maybe 10-20 pictures) and the batteries are not lasting longer than a week.

I HATE this camera, and have had nothing but problems with it since it was given to me as a mother's day gift in May, 2007. I have sent it in for service (what a frustrating two weeks!)and after getting it back--allegedly fixed-- I opened the box, and the batteries I had put in just prior to sending it for service were not working. I put in two more brand new batteries and one day later, yesterday, I power it on and get the "low battery" message. The lag time between pushing the button and the actual picture snap is infuriating, and the service provided by Samsung was abominable. I will never purchase another Samsung item! I am beyond frustrated-- the camera's shortcomings were exacerbated by the complete lack of service provided by Samsung' so-called "service" center. I was unable to reach anyone in a position of authority, and the phone rep actually refused to let me speak to a supervisor, and refused to give me a supervisor's name. DO NOT BUY THIS CAMERA, and DO NOT GIVE THIS unresponsive company your business!

I dont know why people complain about this camera? It has exceeded a lot of cameras ive had. It works better than nikon coolpix L11 and is cheaper. The video audio is crisp clear, awesome clips ive made. Its very user friendly. All cameras use up batteries, but this by far is the longest lasting compared to Kodak C series. Always get rechargeables.

Most people don't know how to change the factory settings for better effect. I use it along with a much more expensive Canon camera I have and they are equal. If anything the Samsung is better because it takes equally good pictures with excellent color accuracy inside and out, and needs less tweaking on auto.
Some reveiwers reveal their ignorance because they use alkaline batteries in the first place and yet complain of short battery life. Alkaline batteries last about a third as long as rechargeable Nimh ones.
Moreover, there is a setting for Nimh batteries and Alkaline. If you use Nimh, youll get longer battery life, but not if the factory setting of "alkaline" isn't changed.
I might also add that Nimh batteries can be normally in the 1800-2650 range, and the higher they are the longer the battery life.
I don't change the batteries on this camera very often at all, but i use some of the energy saver settings and 2500 and 2650 Nmih batteries. I bought my battery charger including 4 batteries for $13 from Amazon with no shipping charges or tax.


There are many setting that extend the battery life as well, such as "lcd save", "normal" vs. "fine" and "ultra-fine", lcd "bright, normal and dark", and also how long you want the image to show after taking it (1-5 seconds), and how much time yould like to elapse before the camera shuts off (3-10 minutes).
All digital cameras have difficult menus and poor manuals, so it's no wonder users struggle often with the wrong settings. Some of the settings cannot be made on "Auto" and must be made on "P" (program).

i ordered this product and it is great.it takes great pictures and it gives you a good view.i would highly recommend this camera

after using the camera once the secound try the camera bit the dust just BAD LUCK

Got this as a compliment point and shoot digital camera, replacing a number of Nikon CoolPix models that I have used in the past. The immediate impression was of the cheap fabrication feel: the bad fit and the poor plastic material used. Next in using the camera I am not finding any manual white balance and the camera will run out of battery in less than 30 pictures(!) and 'no', it does not come with a rechargeable battery -so go figure... As for picture quality it quite poor as well and I get the idea that they have stretched the capabilities of the imaging chip way too far when taking 6MP out of a component that is maybe good for half...

I would not recommend this camera to anyone, not even to beginners: start with a camera like this and you're not going to grow the hobby...

I bought this camera a few weeks ago and after using it a couple times, it just stopped working out of the blue. It turns on, but it won't take pictures or let me view pictures. A friend of mine also bought this camera and we were both excited because I had a red one and she, a black one and she experienced the same problem. She even went out of her way to contact Samsung and get another Samsung camera with the result being that the same thing happened again. All in all, I think this brand must be bad in general or the model is. Either way, I don't recommend this camera AT ALL. I wasted around $100 and now I have to go buy a new camera.

After using this camera for several months, I threw it out after it broke for the last time I wanted to deal with it. I thought this would be a decent camera due to the easy-to-use features and the pictures taken being adequate for the price. The computer interface was not as user-friendly as other digital cameras I've had or seen, but the battery consumption was a bigger problem. Taking about 15-20 pictures was average for me before having to reload another set of batteries. That can become expensive. Worse is finding the lens "freezes" when the batteries are low and one changes them. The lens on mine refused to open after the last battery change. After finding out this was a common problem, I got a more dependable camera.

For the price it may be an all right camera but the few sample shots I took didn't seem to have nearly the clarity of pictures taken with my Fuji digitals. I didn't have the camera long basically because the layout of the buttons and menus was very different than my Fuji mind could tolerate. I do love the black body though! As to the battery life, everyone is right. It will destroy a fresh set of alkaline batteries in a few shots - but that's typical for many digital cameras. By the way, I never found out how to get the icons off the LCD while taking pictures and the manual is almost worthless.

After a few months this camera does not work.

With new recharged batteries just shows 'low battery'.

Service is hard to get also.

Look elsewhere.

I bought this camera when I realized I had left mine in my husbands truck & I was leaving on a girls trip. Didn't do any reasearch. Many pictures are blurry & this camera is SLOW in processing a shot. With the many comments about battery life I suspect that is the problem. But even fresh batteries don't seem to help. ONLY good feature was I literally pointed it in the dark & using the night time mode & the pictures came out really good. But something else. This one is getting passed on to my employees for their work vehicles in case they ever need a camera.

Great camera, easy to use, easy to download pictures. Just be sure to get a savercard, or you will have to keep downloading after a few pictures. Also, be picky with your batteries, this camera will say "low battery" even with new ones if you get the wrong ones. We use rechargable. We have three of these cameras in our home, and use them almost daily.

Pros:
Light weight, buttons feel good, LCD is clear and bright, icons are fairly standard (as compared to the other digi' cams out there), uses AA batteries instead of proprietary design (may also be a con to some) fairly fast shutter (WAY faster than the S0nys!

Cons:
Even on the highest setting ("superfine", 2816 x 2112, ~3MB an image) you only get a 96dpi image! My Can0n shoots the same size picture, and at 3MB, but at 180dpi! The visual difference is huge. The 2 AA batteries make the unit a little bigger than some would like, but I like that they are easily replaceable without having to go brand-specific. Low-light situations are just "acceptable." Not great. More digital noise in low light images than I think there should be at this point in the digital camera game.

Other Thoughts:
The USB cable that comes with it is ABSOLUTELY necessary. Why? Samsung decided to go with the ultra small USB link on the camera, meaning you cannot use the other (larger) somewhat standard USB cable. Meaning: more cables to mind. Fairly easy to use if you have used other programmable digi' cams. All the settings are what I expected and nothing wowed me or really bothered me. Good point-and-shoot for kids, non-professional photographers and people looking for decent quality images. Kingston 1 GB SD Card SD/1GBKR works well with it. Formats the SD very quickly.

The sounds (fake shutter, beeps and whatnot) can be turned off or modified. Nice. Does NOT have as many manual options as some of the higher-end cameras, but more than a kid or point-and-shoot type person would need.

When you plug the camera into the computer it does not connect right away. On the camera LCD, you have to select between "Computer" or "Printer." Can't see why, since I never use it with my printer.

We purchased this camera from another dealer besides Amazon, but I'm so frustrated with the lack of customer support at Samsung that I'm leaving a review for others. I bought it as an impulse purchase when another camera broke while on vacation. I wish I would've been able to read other reviews from other websites first. From the first day we bought the camera it has been a battery hog. We replaced the packaged batteries within the hour of opening the box. I assumed they were just low quality batteries since they were with the box. Placed Engergizer Lithium batteries in the camera, they lasted less than 50 shots. Now the camera will not even recognize new batteries. It powers down before you can even take a shot (this with brand new out of the package batteries!) And forget about calling Samsung. First I was disconnected three different times. Then after 20 minutes on the phone it was suggested that I go out and buy rechargeable batteries and call back if those don't work. When I refused to replace the brand new lithium batteries with rechargeable batteries I was told I would have to go online and ask for a request to return the merchandise for repair... what?!? I thought that's why I called the 800 number on the box????????? When I pointed this out the C.S.R. only informed me that this was standard proceedure and the only way the camera could be returned. We will never buy Samsung again.

Bought one of these and it was defective out of the box. Immediately starts flashing low battery. Got another one and the same thing with it. Samsung has terrible support and would only offer to repair it at my expense. This is embarassing when the camera was given as a gift.

Too bad, the camera has nice features for the price.

Compare this camera to any others you can find at this price, and this one is clearly the best. The screen is a large (for the price) 2.5", the lens is glass and of decent quality, and the fit/finish is better than the Canon A-Series. There is also quite a few color/focus effects built right in, which can make snapshots fun.

The only real downside I've found is that battery life is lacking, although Ni-MH batteries help quite a bit.
Highly recommended for a backup camera or for novice photographers that could eventually use the manual controls on this camera.

I purchased the camera as a gift for someone else, but from what I hear, she's very pleased with the camera..

I bought this camera for my teenager son for Xmas and I have to say that I am really surprised for all the great options that this camera have. Is very easy to use, the ¨fun¨ options are really great and to be honest I have a Sony digital camera and it is not even close to bring all the flexible menues that the Samsung bring to the user.
Great combination between price, quality and fun.

First of all I am not going to cover any of the subjects that have been beat to death on here already. But to anyone thinking of buying this Camera dont walk , RUN to purchase it! This is without a doubt the finest little camera on the market for $89! It will take pictures as good as a $3-400 one [if it is set correctly] And to address the battery issue??? There isnt one........... all the comment about the batterys that came with it only lasting 10 mins that is TRUE .......... however that is the same length of time; they would last, in ANY digital camera. The LCD display takes alot of power to run on ANY camera. The problem is most of the folks on here howling about this camera need to be smarter than the camera and they are NOT. Why so many have said that it doesnt have a battery meter is a mystery to me; as it is shown in the upper right corner and tells you the state of charge at all times. For the camera to take the crispest photos you need to set it to Sharpness=Vivid Plus and Contrast to HIGH. The manual isnt much good to anyone; and you have to wade thru the online one, to find out how it really works: and that is the worst part of the camera the online manual...........
Once this is set up correctly, you couldnt ask for a nicer little camera, for $89 there just isnt one made. 99% of the problem is that people dont understand cameras and they WONT read the manual ......... hence the battery problems, uses to much power, no meter, poor quality pictures, etc.
The camera will take supurb quality photos if you set it up correctly but you do need to know enough about it to make those settings .

Now that the price is dropping below $60, this is a good deal for those who want a big screen and a zoom.
You people new to digital cameras: MUST USE RECHARGEABLE BATTERIES, and keep 2 extra sets in your camera case. You wanted a 2.5" screen, the 1" wouldn't do, well that big screen takes 6X as much electricity (do the math), and that's got to come from somewhere. Until the LED screens hit the market, or cold fusion is invented, that's the only way. Get the batteries and get the charger and get over it. The alkaline batts they give you with the camera are just so you can turn it on and play with it right away. Put those in your flashlight and get some 3000 mah NiMH's and start taking pictures.
I mostly use 1 megapixel images, but setting the camera for that gave me noisy grainy pix; I'm taking them at 6 and decreasing the size in photoshop. Also, the Macro setting isn't very macro. I have to use a close-up lens.

I bought this camera as a Christmas present for my 7 year old son, who has shown an interest in photography and had taken some very interesting shots with my digital camera while visiting my parents during the summer. He has shown promise with his artistic eye for detail, content, and placement and I wanted to encourage him without investing too much money in his newfound hobby. He loves this camera! It is lightweight, easy to use, has features that makes it easy for him to be even more creative with the effects, and the pictures are decent. He has taken a few shots that he really liked, so I had them printed as 8"x10" prints and framed for his wall. He's going on his first Caribbean cruise this spring and looking forward to filling his 2G memory card with photos and memories to have printed and make a phtoto coffee table book for me and his grandparents. Though it's not what I'd purchase for my 16 year old son or either of my teenaged stepdaughters, who have a keener eye for picture quality and are a bit more responsible, I think it's a great first camera for a child who is truly interested in photography and has shown that they have a knack for finding beauty through the lens.

Saw this mid-size Samsung S630 for $59 last week, and bought it for my 11 year old daughter without a second thought. It was very light in weight (plastic case)and good built. Photos were nice and above one's expectation for less than 60 bucks. It also has lots of features and a 2.5" LCD screen. I used two Sanyo enelope rechargeable batteries and they are still running after couple hundreds of photos. Video clips were even better in image quality than photos in dim light. This is a great beginner camera in such a low price and good quality. Now my daughter can have her own camera for her school field trips.
Great gift for your kids.

The camera is very good designed, with plenty features, and very good picture's quality. I bought one for my daughter, and then additional one for my causine. Could be used for 10-yeras old, as well for adults.

I brought this camera in April this year and it was my best purchase since. It is perfect, the quality is great and yes there may be a lag between pictures but hey my friend has a Nikon and a Sony and those cameras have the same lag time as this one.
I would recommend anyone to purchase this cam, and please don't study people when they say the camera has no battery life- you not suppose to use normal batteries on ANY digital camera because it will only last a few minutes. I bought a rechargeable pack batteries and it works jus fine.
For the price this is the perfect camera and it is HIGHLY recommended by me.

Okay, so you pick up the camera. The first thing you feel is the cheap plastic. We're not talking the same plastic most digital cameras are made of; this is CHEAP! Without batteries, it is by far the lightest digital camera I have ever held. That is already a turn off in my opinion. I doesn't look or feel, in any way, durable. I'm afraid of squeezing it too hard in the anticipation it will crack. Not good.

It has the same amount of buttons and switches most point and shoot cameras possess, the power button, the shutter button, a menu button, etc. The one thing it does have that most don't is the turntable switch to choose different modes of shots, which is usually only found on SLRs. I don't know if Samsung thought this would be appealing to people. It certainly makes switching shots quicker, but it's not going to cancel out the horrible body.

The startup time of the camera is quite fast with no welcome screen, so that's good. The first thing that I want to do is get in there and setup the size of the image. But, wait! It's nowhere to be found. 2816x2112 seems to be the only resolution this camera takes. But, I later discover that you have to press the trash can button to change image sizes. It's not in the menu where you would find it in most cameras.

So, after I have the images fine tuned, I go to take a shot. I have a stuffed moose that sits on my desk and I use it as a prop for most of my photo taking lately. It seems no matter what setting I set it on, Portrait, Scene, Manual, ASR, Program, Auto, or Night Scene, this camera will NOT focus on the moose, no matter how far away from it I am (we're talking within 5 feet or so). Now, most of the other cameras I've tested will focus within 2 feet of the moose. This is rediculous.

I take a picture of a different subject that the camera WILL focus on and wait for the Eye-Fi to upload it. IMMEDIATELY I notice noise in every shot. I thought this was just the jenky LCD screen that they used with the camera. Nope, it's the image itself. There is no reason why this camera should have so much noise.

I'm done toying with this camera by now. There is nothing that is going to bring my rating above one star. NOTHING.

I do not recommend this camera whatsoever. And the price that it is selling for? You have got to be kidding me. This is NOT a great camera for the price. If you gave this camera more than 2 stars, you have obviously never owned another digital camera before, or this is your second digital camera, with the preceding being manufactured in 1999. Horrid.

Quick camera features review:
runs on 2 AA batteries, either nimh or alkaline (I rec: nimh)
2 GB memory card has space for over 1200 photos at 6mp. (not included)
optical and digital zooms, optional image stabilization,
various single picture modes, video, programmable, timer mode, manual aperture (etc)...
big bright display on the back, fairly easy to use controls. Not to small.
Automatic dust cover closes on power-off.

The things I like about it, and why I bought it: it supports about as many modes as my older full-size Olympus (cost over 3x as mych), uses AA batteries (any kind), has a big viewer, uses commonly available media cards, is fairly small (bar of soap), common mini-usb plug to transfer pictures, cost less than $100. 6 megapixel.

It may not have the optics or ultra-clarity of a $1500 SLR, but for a "toss in the backpack or car and use as desired" camera, it going to be hard to beat.

I keep this camera in my service truck for those broken parts that has little or no description in the service manual or parts books. The NiMh batteries I use is rated for 2600MH and seems to keep the charge for three months.

The truck is cold on cold days but the camera starts right up. When the batteries dies or not work from cold, I use the NiMh batteries from my AA led flash light.

I rate this a 4 star; I need a viewfinder when it bright sunlight and It's hard to focus.

This a is an overall good camera. Great pics, lots of different options, but the reason i give it 2 stars is because Of battery life.

The batteries on my camera last barely 5 minutes, usually around 3 1/2-
4 mins.. Ive gone through 2 22 packs of double a batteries in the 3 weeks ive had it.

Ive decided just to leave it rather than sped wayy more money on double A's.

Pros:
Great pictures
Lots of cool options
light
inexpensive
Compatible with many different types of cards
Takes Relatively good movies.

Cons
Low battery life
Lot of shutter lag
there appears to be no battery savers option
NO VIEWFINDER Just BATTERY EATING lcd screen.