Customer Reviews

Samsung Digimax L73 7MP Digital Camera with 3x Advance Shake Reduction Optical Zoom (Black)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I have had this camera for about two weeks and I must say I'm very impressed. After three plus years of owning my bulky, chunky Panasonic Lumix 3megapixel Camera I decided to try the Samsung Sleek and Sexy Lifestyle (L-series) Digital Camera. Correct me if I'm wrong but for you cost conscious consumers out there, this camera is almost identical to the NV11, the differences are: 10megapixel instead of 7 (only important if you are planning on printing Poster Size pictures), the Schneider Lens in the NV is "world renowned" but my L73 takes breath taking pictures as well, and finally the NV11 has a flip up Flash instead of a front built-in flash like the L73 and I like the flash being built in instead of flip open because having to manually flip open the flash seems like a bad design choice. The MAJOR difference between the NV11 and the L73 is the price the NV11 costs $250 and the L73 is $150

Picture Quality/Features: As stated above, I've gotten nothing but fantastic pictures out of this camera. The Auto feature does give average picture quality indoors, and outdoors you will want to play with features, but that's the beauty of this camera, adjusting a setting and taking a test shot is as easy as sliding your finger over a touch sensitive button and changing lighting settings, exposure, scene variables like motion shots, dark shots, super close-up macro shots, there's tons of easy features. The best is when you're first getting used to the camera and the features, it's defaulted to telling you what each little picture means, so you don't have to guess what a stick figure stands for in the options. Night shots are great I just bought a 53" tripod on Amazon and gone around the lakes to take amazing shots, it reminds me of my old SLR back in high school and that amazed me. So taking great pictures is easy to do right out of the box, but you'll fall in love with the features and tweaking them so you get the absolute best result you wanted.

Battery Life: The lithium Ion battery was new to me, I'm used to using two AA batteries about every time I go out (talk about wasting money) but the this little battery has kept a full charge after one week of light use. Since initially messing with features and waiting for my tri-pod to arrive in the mail I've used the camera about 6 or 7 times and the battery is still at it's full three bars. **make sure with any lithium ion battery operated device, that you drain the battery completely when you first get it and then charge it the maximum number of hours it states in the manual. To avoid over charging, don't charge it again until that full charge is once again depleted. This will give you maximum battery power from then on** I considered getting a backup battery but I think I'll wait because this battery lasts long enough for my needs. If you are planning on taking lots of pictures or going on vacation where you can't access a Powered USB connection or AC connection I'd recommend an extra battery. It's a SLB-0837 3.7v lithium Ion battery you can buy them online for about $10-$15.

Cost-Benefit: This camera was a great purchase, Circuit City doesn't carry them in their store (most likely because it's so similar to the NV10 and NV11 that it'd hurt the sale on the more expensive models) but you can buy it on their website and shipping is fast. All together I bought the camera($153+$4 shipping), slim carrying case($10), 2 Year Protection Plus Plan Damage Protection ($48), Laminate Screen Protector ($5) and 53" aluminum tri-pod($15+$3 shipping) so all together I spent about $238 for a camera that's protected for years to come and I couldn't be happier, it's slim enough to fit in my backpack and durable enough to withstand a day in the life of a college student, and then it also takes great pictures and with a little messing around you can get any situation shot perfectly.

The DEAL BREAKER for me was the Video Capturing Abilities! Normal Digital Cameras take low resolution video, but this Camera takes near DVD quality Video. The resolution is actually higher than a regular DVD. It's 800x592 and it's captured in AVI format. ALSO, you can pause the recording instead of starting a new video it resumes recording from where you paused! I plugged it into my 40" LCD and of course it was nothing High Def but it sure wasn't bad coming from a little Slim Camera.

High On Features, Low On Cost. Go check it out for yourself! Also check out YouTube and search for the Samsung L73 and you'll see the TigerDirectBlog video review of the camera.

I sort of fell into this camera, by accident. I was looking at the 7.2 MP Digicams in Walmart, and wrote down what I thought was the correct model number. Looking them up on Amazon, I found them for a slightly higher price, but with the addition of a free 2 gig card. I ordered one that night.

What I really found was the better L73, and not your standard Digicam. My only experience with digital cameras was a crappy DXG camera, and a four year old Kodak.
From going from a dated Kodak, to a state of the art Samsung wasn't really all that big of a stretch. I read the book, and spent a couple hours playing with it, and was taking quality pictures with it right away.

If I could have given the l73 camera six stars, I would have. It takes great pictures and good video also. It has everything a novice could want in a camera, and much more.
There were a few things the book didn't cover very well, but were easily looked up on the internet.

To the guy who said he didn't get his memory card. You did know, you were supposed to add it to your shopping cart, right?

I just bought this camera today, July 5 2007, from a local Superwalmart. I'm fourteen and my birthday was just a few weeks ago, so i'm not really a big shopper. This is my second Samsung camera in just over a year. Last year, I got the Samsung Digimax S500 for my birthday, and I absolutley loved it. After about 9 months, the design got kind of old, and it had been through some bad times. I currently own the new Samsung L73, and I love it. Of course, the 2.5" LCD screen is large, but now pretty basic for camera's. But i'm not complaining. However, because of the large picture size, and a smaller screen, the pictures look some-what low quality. HOWEVER! The pictures on the computer are amazing! It's love. The shutter delay on Auto mode is pretty slow, because it is trying to focus it so you can have the best quality pictures. However, the ASR mode, (Anti Shake Reduction) takes crisp, clean pictures. I was literally shaking the camera half to death, and when i looked at the picture, you wouldn't have known if i was holding it still or not. I love this camera. Also, the rechargeable batery compared to the older models of Samsung camera's is a pig plus! Thank you samsung for a well built camera!

I bought this camera to replace my bulky old 3.2 mp fuji camera. The pros are small compact size, fits in my pocket without being uncomfortable,large display screen,great battery that lasts a long time and quickly recharges,I love the touch pads that allow you to quickly navigate through most functions.The cons are low quality video,but at this price you can't expect HD Quality.All in all this is a great point and shoot if you don't want to spend $200 plus for the sony.

My only point of comparison are Canon cameras just so you know where I am coming from. I was trying to decide between this or the Canon SD1000. Finally, I decided on this because of cost. After using this camera for about 2 weeks, I should have bought the Canon. The handling of the camera is decent but there are just too many buttons and cheap, unnecessary features. The smart touch works well but I prefer the old wheel found on most cameras.

Overall:
Pros:
-many features for the price. 7MP
-looks great and well built
-awesome high resolution video mode
-the viewing screen is bright and high res

CONS:
-the shutter lag is just horrible
-larger than the canon.
-too many buttons. interface is not simple.

I'm sure not many people are interested in this anymore, but I felt that I oughta chime in with these reviews. I've had this camera for almost 4 years, since the end of '07, and I've had only good experiences with it. Of course, that might be because I'm not used to $1000 SLRs or anything...it's my first camera and I'm just now looking to upgrade from it. But anyway, it's a very solid little machine. I've taken pretty good care of it, always kept it in its case and stuff, but the fact of the matter is, this camera has been from the Virgin Islands to Ontario to the Adirondacks to North Carolina beaches to the Appalachian Trail, it's been camping numerous times, it's been in humidity and high heat and sub-freezing and rain and snow, and it's always brought home quality photos. Even though I'm now looking to upgrade to something with more zoom and more manual controls and some of the cool features cameras have these days, I'll be keeping this one until it breaks. No, the video isn't HD, and the zoom motor is very noticeable during video recording. And no, it doesn't have many features compared to new cameras. It is rugged though (I'll refuse to buy a plastic camera knowing that aluminum bodies are so much stronger and better and last longer and don't get scratched easily and look better), takes good photos, has a decent screen, gives you all the important options in the Program mode (even gives you manual focus control), has a neat and intuitive "button" system, and a solid lens. And I liked the menu system. It's been a great learning tool. Not perfect, though. After 4 years, the buttons are starting to loose some of their sensitivity or something...they don't always work the way I tell them to. And even when they did, it took FOREVER to navigate your way around an image in the playback mode if you were at all zoomed in on the image...like, checking the focus or something. It's a pretty slow camera, taking a second or two to focus, like 4-5 seconds to recharge the flash, etc., but there was never any lag when navigating menus or anything. I never even really bothered using the face detection mode. The "Advanced Shake Reduction" is, as the other reviews suggest, a bit misleading...it just ups the ISO or the shutter speed or something to cancel out some of your hand shake. The scene modes worked alright, although I really just kept it in Program for most of the time (I used the Landscape scene mode a few times, didn't see much difference between that and the way I had the Program mode set up), and then changed whatever things I could from that screen. So yep, that about sums up my experience with this camera. I would definitely recommend it as a first camera or for someone who would be happy keeping pretty much the same settings and getting consistently good photos. I would not recommend it for anyone who wants a powerful zoom or fancy "panorama" or "10 fps burst shot" or "intelligent auto" or "twilight" modes or anything like that...I would consider this camera pretty basic and simple by todays standards. But I'll give it a solid 4+ stars for being so good at being basic and simple :)

I HATED this camera from the first day. It was SO difficult to use. WAY too many buttons. It took me forever to figure out and I'm usually really good with electronics. The only reason I kept it was because I really liked the picture quality. Eventually everything had a blue cast and was very light. A friend who is a professional photographer tried to use the settings to balance this, it still wouldn't be "normal." Had to send it back to Samsung to be fixed when the lens wouldn't retract. As time went on the picture quality deteriorated. I have had this for approximately 2.5 years and it finally went. Magenta and yellow splotches on all pictures. Very dark pictures with shadows. Will be getting a new one and it will NOT be a Samsung. I very strongly regret keeping this camera.

I've used this camera for over a year and taken maybe a thousand photos with it (I use it primarily for work.) It's an okay camera, but it does not do everything it claims to do -- see below.
Pros: Form factor -- camera is small but still easy to handle, and it looks sleek and professional. It is very lightweight.

Start Up -- it starts up quickly so you don't miss shots waiting for it to start up.

Image Quality -- excellent. Very sharp pictures with good color capture. Nothing wrong with the image quality.

All-in-one USB Cable -- you can charge the camera using the USB cable, which means fewer cables to haul around. That's nice for those of us who travel a lot.

Cons: AutoFocus is S-L-O-W -- Take a long time to lock-on. How long? Long enough to miss a toddler's smile. Slow enough that you have to say "Wait a second" and make your subject freeze while the camera locks on. It's slower at lower ISO settings and in dimmer conditions. Very slow when using the flash -- I have to basically focus twice -- the first is a failed attempt, the second nails it. This is really pitiful performance.

Anti-shake: This is NOT an anti-shake camera, despite the description. All it does is automatically shoot at a higher ISO to get a faster shutter speed, IF the anti-shake is on and IF you have the right light, which according to the manual is lighting no brighter and no dimmer than a flourescent light fixture. So... the hyped Anti-Shake is simply setting a higher shutter speed, and it only does it if you have that particular setting dialed in and only under very specific lighting situation. Useless.

Scene Features: The portrait feature seems to be okay, but the "child" feature is useless. Even it bright daylight, I have not been able to use this feature usefully. I get blurry pictures. I just don't use it and use the Program setting for everything. The "face-finding" feature also does not work any better than the regular autofocus (which is pretty poor.)

Other useless features: Give how weak the autofocus and scene features are, it's kind of funny that the camera has these built in slide-show features and arcane in-camera video-editing features. These are so limited and hard to use they are basically useless. I'd much rather have not had them at all, and just had better autofocus performance.

Memory Card: Not all memory card readers will read SD chips formatted by this camera. Samsung admitted this when I called them, and they recommend using the USB cable for photo transfer. This is lame. Fact is, I've not had ANY computer that could reliably read chips from this camera (and I've checked on a half-dozen or so different machines.) This is unacceptable -- the point of the SD card is that you can easily transfer the pictures to a computer. I don't always have the USB cable with me, even if I have the camera with me.

I should probably rate this camera even lower, because it claims to be so much better, but at its core it does take good photos, and if you don't need very fast autofocus and can tolerate a noticeable shutter lag, it's not a bad camera. 90% of my photos are of things where these problems don't matter, and the lightness of the camera outweighs the drawbacks. I'd use the camera more for personal photos, though, if it had better autofocus, if the anti-shake really worked, and if the Scene features actually did everything.

Truth is, I would not have purchased this camera had I known about these problems. If the Anti-shake, in particular, is important to you, keep looking for another camera that really has it. This one does not. I'd already had the camera for longer than the return period before I found out about these problems, or I'd have returned it. Now I'm stuck with it. Caveat emptor!

We purchased this during the Christmas sales from Tigerdirect. I used it for about 2 months without any problem. Then one day the lens stuck open and the screen went black. Power turned off. Tried removing the battery and replacing. Battery was charged up to full and still would not work. Zip, Zero response. About a week later I picked it up because I noticed the lens had retracted. Camera was not on. I turned it on and it worked fine. Then about 3 weeks later I used it again and was playing back the pictures on the screen when it did the same thing again. I recharged the battery to full and while hooked up to the computer I was able to turn it on and the lens retracted. But after a full charge it still will not turn on. Even connected to the computer it will not turn on. I have researched the Samsung site but nothing is mentioned about this problem. I did find the E18 error code that is associated to Canon cameras and the symptoms are the same except for the lack of the E18 code on the screen. In hindsight I wish I had purchased one a little more expensive that did not have this problem. I am in the process of trying to get a RMA for warranty repair. But if they are like Canon it will be a user error or misuse even though the camera is kept in a camera case and has not been abused at all. Wish we had spent another $50 and got a Sony.

I think this camera is awesome for the price. I have tested or owned a bunch of point-and-shoot digital cameras, including a really nice Canon, Panosonic, Nikon, Sony, Casio, Kodak, HP, GE, and several Samsungs. For the money, this is the best of all of them - as I said, weighing price against quality. For some reason, this very well-made and solid camera, in my opinion, has gotten a mixed review - maybe it has too many cool things that it does - I don't know. But it takes great pictures. I think it might be a bit inimidating for the point-and-shoot crowd, because it has all these programmable functions - but that's all I can think of. I give this camera 5 stars all the way.