Samsung Digimax A400 4MP Digital Camera with 2.8x Optical Zoom

by Samsung

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.5 x 8 inches ; 2 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B0007PN4GA
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #23,089 in Camera & Photo (See Top 100 in Camera & Photo)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes
• Date first available at Amazon.com: February 4, 2005

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

A 4-megapixel autofocus camera with 2.8x optical and 4x digital zoom, the Samsung Digimax A400 captures crisp images. The Digimax has a 2.0-inch color TFT LCD that enables users to quickly and easily review and preview. The superb macro mode allows users to capture clear images of subject matter as close as 5 centimeters from the camera's lens.

The Digimax A400 offers a lot of features, including multiple flash modes, adjustable white balance, and selectable ISO sensitivity (Auto, 100, 200, and 400). Digimax A400 users can capture both still images and movie clips with audio at resolutions up to 640 x 480 (VGA) at a maximum rate of 24 frames per second (fps). The length of the movie clips are only limited to the capacity of the memory card. Voice recording up to one hour can be recorded with the camera's built-in microphone and sound clips can be attached to individual still images. These images can be stored on the camera's 16.0 MB of internal flash memory or on an external SD/MMC card.

The Digimax A400 offers 9 different customizable Photo frame modes. Its multiple scene modes include Night, Portrait, Landscape, Text, and Fireworks.

With various power sources to choose from--AA alkaline, Ni-MH, Ni-Cd, Ni-Mg, Ni-Zn, Lithium, CR-V3, and Digimax I-Pack SBP-1303--Digimax A400 owners can rest assured that they'll never run out of juice.

Product Description

The Samsung Digimax A400 Digital Camera helps you capture crisp, colorful digital images. Its 2 inch color LCD screen lets you review and preview images easily and the superb 5cm macro mode captures sharp, detailed images as close as 5 centimeters to the camera. Adjustable flash modes, white balance and selectable ISO sensitivity give you the options you need for creating perfect pictures. Adjustable White Balance modes ISO Sensitivity - Auto, 100, 200 and 400 Voice recording and VGA movie clips 16MB internal memory 5 different scene modes - Night, Portrait, Landscape, Text and Fireworks 9 customizable Photo Frame modes Stores to SD/MMC cards Multiple language support in English, French, Italian, Spanish, Korean and Russian PictBridge enabled for direct printing 9 power sources to work with - AA alkaline, Ni-MH, Ni-Cd, Ni-Mg, Ni-Zn, V3 and Digimax I-Pack Box includes - A/V and USB cables, CD with software, wrist strap, CR-V3 lithium battery

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A fine entry level digital camera, November 23, 2005

By 

D. Edwards (Shoreline, WA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Samsung Digimax A400 4MP Digital Camera with 2.8x Optical Zoom (Electronics)

I Purchased a Samsung A400 about a year ago, with the goal of finding a moderately priced, easy to use family digital camera that would double as a casual video camera. The A400 has served well in that role.

The camera has no optical viewfinder, you use the 2" LCD screen to preview the shot. This works well, but eats alkaline AA batteries in short order. Using rechargeable or lithium AAs or CRV3s is almost a must. The ability to use plain old AA batteries in a pinch is nice, however.

Image quality is very good on the auto settings, and there are lots of manual settings to play with. The video has good picture quality, with the audio being slightly out of sync from the onscreen action. The bundled USB cord has an RCA jack, so you can hook the camera up to most TVs. Our DVD player accepts SD cards, so we rarely use this feature, but it is nice for showing recently captured images to a group.

I've never bothered with the bundled software, as the camera shows up as a mass storage device in XP. The 32MB internal memory is small enough that an SD/MMC card is a must, I've been using a 512MB SD card with good results, and have never "needed" a larger card, even when shooting 640x480 video at 24 FPS. Samsung only guarantees support for cards up to 512MB, when I get a 1GB card for my MP3 player I'll see if the A400 can handle it. (Edit-The A400 recognized a 1GB PNY SD card, no problem - so now a half hour video is possible)

Only problem the camera has given me is really my fault: sometimes it is easy to forget what mode the camera is set for, still or video. There is only a small icon on the screen to remind you, and it's easy to miss. Internal audio output would be nice, and the case would be more useful with pockets for SD cards, the cable and spare batteries. Plan on getting another case.

The 2.8X optical and 4X digital zoom give a good range of quality/zoom options when taking still pictures. The zoom is locked to whatever you started with when taking video.

I'm not a digital photography buff so I can't comment on tech specs, but the image quality is plenty good enough for satisfying prints up to 8" x 11". I haven't tried to print anything larger. The video is good enough to capture highlights of family gatherings, but falls short of video camera quality, but it's with you when you need it.

My wife finds it easy to use, and the options menu is pretty simple to navigate. There are a lot of settings and options that I don't use: attaching voice tags to images, the ability to print directly from the camera, the self portrait timers, fireworks/landscape/portrait/night/text exposure settings, manual white balance, nine photo frames, sharpness settings, black&white and sepia effects, and others I'm forgetting. You can fiddle if you want, but the automatic settings seem to do the job for our informal family photos just fine.

Overall, I'm happy with the Samsung A400, it's delivered good, reliable service for a moderate investment. Enthusiasts will want more, but the average digital duffer should be pleased by the combination of price, features and ease of use. The only reasons I'm not giving it five stars are the lack of internal audio playback, certainly not a fatal flaw.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Okay camera, June 20, 2009

By 

mburks5938 - See all my reviews

This review is from: Samsung Digimax A400 4MP Digital Camera with 2.8x Optical Zoom (Electronics)

received the camera as a gift. Compact, fits nicely in a purse or bag. camera takes great photos outdoors or indoors with plenty of light. If you are trying to take pictures indoors with low light, even with the flash, the pictures are often too dark to use. Camera eats AA batteries like crazy so I carry a package of AA batteries just in case. ("low battery" indicator always seemed to go off at the wrong time!). Speaking of "low battery" indicator: once it flashes, camera will NOT take another photo and will turn itself off until the batteries are replaced. View finder is a little deceiving: objects being photographed may not look clear but once I upload them into the computer, they are much larger and clearer than when I took them. All in all, its a good camera. Its not great but its okay - for a gift that I didn't have to pay for. I plan on upgrading.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A good basic camera, April 12, 2007

By 

D. Mann "sunkist 100" (holland, MI) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Samsung Digimax A400 4MP Digital Camera with 2.8x Optical Zoom (Electronics)

I needed an inexpensive camera for taking pictures of vacations, family pets etc. I did not need or want a fancy one.

The camera is easy to use (i havent even read the instructions). The software that comes with it is easy to navigate too. The pictures are clear and a good size. i found that the cameras with 5MP or more are just too large since i dont need 16x20 of my photos - i just email and print out 4x6. Although, i do need to reduce the size for email and webpages. I've printed larger (8x10) and the quality is still fine.

The LCD screen is slightly smaller than what you typically see these days but honestly its fine. You get a good idea of clarity and focus with the screen.

I've only had mine 4 months but so far no problems. I've owned others where the LCD screen has broken in a short amount of time so i know i am rough on the cameras.

The camera is small enough to fit in a purse and carry everyday. Its not real thin like the expensive type but still smaller than most.

Also, this camera takes batteries. I use my camera ALOT and i havent had to change batteries yet. I also own a cannon (for work projects) and it uses up batteries much faster (same amount of use).