Customer Reviews

Samsung Digimax S800 8.1 MP Digital Camera with 3x Optical Zoom (Silver)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I have revised my review after owning the camera awhile and learning alot. I was not allowed to change my stars

One thing that I truly love about this camera are all of the on board effects. There are some truly cool effects on board that this camera can do, not just the typical B&W, Sepia & Negative.

The Samsung uses AA batteries. This is huge especially if you have ever been in the desert on an island or some other place that you can't charge your specialty battery. You can find AA batteries EVERYWHERE. get yourself a few rechargeables and you are good to go, but have the assurance that should you run out of battery, you can get AAs anywhere.


Pluses:
Small
Manual controls in addition to Auto & Scene mode.
MPEG4 video is much smaller than MPEG2 found in other cameras
AA Batteries good battery life, but you can buy AA batteries anywhere
large LCD Screen
Many onboard effects. cool ones too!
Grip is ver comfortable

Minuses:
Red Eye
Image Quality is poor
Broke after 2 months
After 30 seconds recording video, battery would show 0% and shut down
8 Megapixel is deceiving
Non standard USB cable


All in all I now give it 2 stars.

The Bad

* After owning the camera for roughly one month I noticed that half of the lens shield occasionally did not close. I was forced to take the camera back to Sam's Club to exchange it for an identical model.
* The camera does not have a "hold" button and is very easy to accidentally turn on by pressing one of several buttons. Don't even think about carrying this camera around lose in your pocket or purse as it will turn on and attempt to extend its lens when you are least expecting it. If the lens cannot be fully extended, such as in a pocket, the camera will beep but will not attempt to retract the lens. You'll have to stop the car on the side of the highway and get out so that you can stand up to carefully wiggle the camera with partially extended lens out of your pocket. I had no problems keeping my previous digital camera in my pocket for years. You'll need to carry this camera inside a hard case or special camera bag. You might also get away with removing the batteries and placing the batteries back in later but this kind of work removes a lot of spontaneity from your photography.
* The camera comes with a 256 MB SD card. The cost of the 256 MB SD card (as of the date of camera manufacture) is factored into the camera price. I already own a 1 GB SD card, a 256 MB SD card, and a 128 MB SD card. I resent having to pay for this 256 MB SD card which I will never use. Perhaps I could spend some time reselling the 256 MB SD card but it's hardly worth it and I wouldn't be able to return the camera if the lens cover ever acted up again.
* The camera claims to work with up to a 1 GB SD card. As of May, 2006 you could purchase a 1 GB SD card online for $20 USD from Buy.com. Why won't my $300 camera accept more than $20 worth of memory at a time? At the time I purchased the camera I was intending to purchase a 4 GB SD card for it until I read the manual. I suppose I could spend $75 to buy 3 more 1 GB SD cards memory cards but I don't want to keep up with which ones I have used and which ones I haven't, swap them out in the middle of taking photos, tell my computer to download images four times instead of just one, etc, etc. I also feel that the stack of 1 GB SD cards will end up collecting dust (like my 128 MB card) a good 12-18 months before a single 4 GB SD card would.
* To connect the camera to your USB port on your computer you need a special proprietary cord instead of one of the standard USB cords available locally. I use my camera for both business and personal purposes which means I have to keep dragging this special cord around between my home computer and work computer. Think of taking the cord back and forth as roughly a doubling of camera size. Of course I could shell out for an additional cord but I refuse to monetarily reward this sort of nonsense.
* There is no way to enter personal information into the camera so that if an honest party discovered the camera they could contact you. The serial number is on an easily removed sticker and does not appear on any of the menu screens. If my camera was stolen, and I knew where it was, I don't think there is any way I would be able to prove it was "my camera" to the police.
* When taking video the camera stops recording sound if the zoom feature is used for the duration of the time the lens is extending or retracting.
* There is no "raw" uncompressed photo mode.
* The camera does not have a viewfinder, which I would not mind except there is no way to turn off the screen to conserve battery life or increase stealth.
* The camera image files names are numbered. When I purchased the camera I wanted to start my image numbers where my old camera left off but could not. When I exchanged the camera I was again forced to reset my image numbering scheme.

The Good

* Most importantly the camera is "8.1 mega pixels" with a cost of less than $300.00 and does not use proprietary or built-in batteries and memory. It runs well on two AA NiMH batteries and accepts standard SD Memory Cards. These attributes were the major deciding factors in my purchasing decision.
* The camera captures sound and video, albeit only at VGA resolution (640x480).
* Transferring files between the camera and Fedora Linux was effortless.

A special note: This review contains a large number of "Bad" points in comparison to the number of "Good" points. Please do not let that fool you into thinking that I give the camera a poor overall review. On the contrary, I think the Samsung camera is MUCH better than the Sony POS that I have previous experience with and would highly recommend it to anyone giving it an overall rating of 4 out of 5 stars.

This is a fabulous camera! The item description does not do it justice by a long shot. This is my first digital camera and before purchsing it I went to the WalMart web site to check out their digitals. The had a 7.1 MP for $50 more so I came back to Amazon and placed the order.

The camera has a nice large screen on the back for previewing, 20 MB of internal memory. This is large compared to others for a similar price.
The pictures are superb quality. My grandson connected it to the TV for a slide show preview with special effects like an expensive video. I am very, very pleased with this camera!

I bought this camera to take on a Mexican vacation and could hardly take a bad picture, even at night. Our company travel agent even suggested I submit some to our newspaper's travel editor... A 10X zoom would be nice but it seemed to do well, even with the whale watching -- I couldn't see what I was taking due to the sun's glare but was pleasantly surprised by the pictures I got.

I'm only a little peeved because I bought the camera as an Amazon gold box special and the price has gone down another $20 since I purchased it!

I have used many digital cameras before but never owned any. This is my first digicam.

1. I liked the camera coz it is light and easy to carry around
2. The picture quality is amazing and i will believe it is 8.1 MP
3. The real disadvantage is that it drains battery so much that it won't last for even 30 min in total when u start taking movies. (I believe i put on new pair of batteries coz they came along with the camera)

It is time for samsung to put a rechargeable battery in the camera itself. Changing Ni-Cd batteries and charging them in turns is a real pain.

I read quite a number of reviews on the Samsung S800. Some of the reviews were quite negative. I was a bit skeptical when I brought this camera. I brought it anyway, since I could not find another camera with the same features for even a much higher price. After 3 months of use, I am glad that I made the right decision. Picture quality is at least as good as my other digital cameras ( Olympus C5050 and Panasonic Lumix ), if not better. MPEG4 video is good except during playback, the image and sound are a bit out of sync. Anyway, considering all factors, this is a very good buy for the amount of money. I even use it to replace my JVC camcorder.

Good:
- use standard AA batteries
- use standard SD memory cards
- very attractive appearance (black only, the silver looks cheap)
- light weight
- MPEG4 video with pause control (unique and excellent feature )
- tons of special effects and features
- fast flash
- auto/program/manual mode

Bad:
- video and sound are out ot sync during playback
- does not come with rechargeable batteries and charger
- proprietary video cable

For less than $[...], what else can you ask for ?

I have to agree with J. Pauley's review. I've owned this camera for about six months and taken it on several long trips already. The pictures I've taken have been stunning regardless of lighting, and I couldn't be happier. I'd buy this Samsung again without reservation. 8MP for this price--with great quality photos--can't be beat!

i bought this camera looking for a better 1 than i had ... it works great , was priced good for the .. M/pixels , features , can be a little complicated for someone that has never used 1 , plz read the manual ...

PROS - VALUE, 8.1MP, GOOD PICTURE QUALITY, NICE FEATURE SET, Good camera compensation for moving targets (continuous shot mode, anti-shake, kid mode, etc...)

CONS - Battery life with ALKALINES is POOR BUT easily rectified with good NiMH. I use the Duracell 2650mAH.


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 $[...] from Amazon. Suffice to say I am MORE than pleased with purchase. Thus far, I have taken about 300 pics with this Camera. You will be unhappy with Alkalines so spend $[...] and buy the rechargable NiMH batteries.

This is our second Samsung Digital Camera. The first one broken within weeks - lens would get stuck, zoom wouldn't work, and you could not take any pictures. When it would 'freeze' the only solution was to shut down, and restart. Then the photo-op was gone.
The camera was a Christmas gift for our daughter, and I didn't want her to have to deal with these issues.

We took the camera back to the store, and because it was just after Christmas the store was out of most of their digital cameras. The gave us a store credit, and we later upgraded to the Samsung Digimax S800 8.1 mp. It was a bit more than the 5.0 mp, but it seemed like an incredible deal.

Now less than 6 month later, the same problem, and more. The lens stays in the fully extended position now, and runs down the batteries, and if you try to adjust the zoom the camera shuts off. There is no stop/start solution. It is now a paper weight.

I was just informed it is too late to return it or exchange it. Do not be fooled by this 'Steal' , you'll just be robbed $200 like me.