Samsung L830

...introduction==

The Samsung L830 is an advanced but usable camera newly launched by Samsung. I bought this camera for £79 from Currys just after Christmas. I though that this was very much of a bargain as I was told that it was reduced from £199.99.

==So what does it feature?==

The Samsung L830 boasts 8.1 mega pixels of quality, although you can also downgrade the settings to lower mega pixels. The 8.1 ...
...pure quality in both photographs taken and films created. The definition and detail is absolutely superb and when you take a picture of something it actually looks like the object in the photograph. There is no doubt that the quality is absolutely fantastic and you could use this camera and it's quality to take all different kinds of photos. However, as the photos produced in 8mp quality are so brilliant this means that this puts a great strain on ... more

An introduction

The Samsung L830 is an advanced but usable camera newly launched by Samsung. I bought this camera for £79 from Currys just after Christmas. I though that this was very much of a bargain as I was told that it was reduced from £199.99.

So what does it feature?

The Samsung L830 boasts 8.1 mega pixels of quality, although you can also downgrade the settings to lower mega pixels. The 8.1 mega pixels provide the user with an astonishing degree of pure quality in both photographs taken and films created. The definition and detail is absolutely superb and when you take a picture of something it actually looks like the object in the photograph. There is no doubt that the quality is absolutely fantastic and you could use this camera and it's quality to take all different kinds of photos. However, as the photos produced in 8mp quality are so brilliant this means that this puts a great strain on your memory and in fact- without any memory card, the camera's built in memory could actually only hold 4 photos!!! Obviously this is a problem and so a memory card is needed. I managed to purchase a 1GB memory card for £9.99 in Currys which allows me to take around 500 8 mega pixel quality photos.

It also features MPEG4 video recording technology which I know very little about but I do know that the quality of my videos- both sound and picture are absolutely fantastic. I can't see any faults with the video system on this camera at all.

What's great about this camera is that it is equipped with so many different features. There are features which allow anti red-eye and I have tried this and it works wonders!

My camera also has something called Advanced Shake reduction (ASR) this allows images taken without the flash to be high quality and not blurred or phased. This also woks well, although you have to have the camera set to this mode if not using flash because, if you don't use flash in any other mode the pictures will be very blurry.

A very advanced piece of technology this camera features is Advanced Face Recognition. Not only does it have this technology, it features the two different times of this technology. AF- which intelligently recognizes the faces in a picture and automatically focuses on them and AE- which allows the face in the picture to be bright and not hidden by shadows or darkness. To be honest, I haven't really noticed much evidence of this, I actually think that it's fancy names for something which most cameras do, but I could be wrong, however, I Guess that faces always do seem quite bright and focused in all pictures but I don't really have much to compare my pictures to as this is my first digital camera.

The L830 features a feature called ISO1600. This allows pictures to be taken at fast speeds- e.g. someone on a bike or something. I haven't really taken any photo's of this, apart from some of my friends and I on the trampoline and these weren't blurry at all and were very good quality so I guess it works!

I like the convenient dial which the camera has. It's basically a little dial at the top of the camera which you slide when you want to change mode. It's very handy as it means you don't have to use the complex menu system very often.

There is also a night mode which is average, nothing really special about that, it just makes your pictures in the night lighter. Also there is this weird thing called 'children' mode for taking pics of kids that run about and stuff. Who knows what they were thinking here? I don't even know what it's supposed to do. Really weird.

There is a 3 x optical zoom and also digital zoom and I really like it because you can zoom in really far which is handy, although if you zoom in to the maximum the image on the LCD screen looks a bit noisy and saturated, but don't be put off by that as the pictures actually come out better than what it looks like on screen in this case.

You can also change the photo colour to all different crazy colours- sepia, Black and white, negative etc. etc. the usual suspects. You can also edit pictures after you have taken them which is also handy!

I LOVE the fact there is a recharable battery because digital cameras and regular alkaline batteries never work. This battery lasts for a bout three hours of constantly using it which is a long time for a digital camera!

What comes with it?

With this you get a wrist strap, Rechargeable battery, charger with detachable USB lead, software and an instruction book. The software isn't really needed I don't think. Well, not for me as I simply 'open folder to explore files' when I plug my cam in to my computer because I don't really need to do anything fancy with them. The instruction booklet is the stupidest thing ever made. I hate it. It didn't help me in any way. It would say things like "Do not insert the memory card the wrong way round" Well, I'm not stupid and I didn't know which way it went, so when I saw that, I though I had better do it right. But neither in the book nor on the camera does it actually show you which is the right or wrong way round. Stupid!!!!

What do you need to buy extra?

As I said before, a memory card is a must! Also you have to buy a case as this is quite a delicate little camera.

Is it easy/hard to use?

It is easy to use, and I am very thankful for that as I dislike the instruction book. I have never really had much experience with digital cameras and I could work it out just fine although I am still unaware of some aspects on the menu and dial because I haven't investigated them yet as I haven't felt the need to use them.

What is the quality of the photo like?

Excellent. 9/10. No problems with this at all, although on some modes it can be blurry if you don't put it on ASR.

What about the design and quality of the actual camera?

Well, there's a funny story attached to this section (I like to inform and entertain!) I took this camera out on New Years eve, I had had it two days. Towards midnight, blind drink my friend and I went to the toilet and she decided it would be fun to squirt feminine wash all up my arm. NICE!!! Unfortunately, it went on my camera, causing it to break. It just wouldn't turn on and it turns out it had got into the USB hole thing. Luckily I took it back and got a new one. Now yes, there is a lesson to be learn there. BUT only a tiny amount of it went into it. And it didn't even dry out. Therefore, I think that if you got the tiniest bit of water or liquid on this camera it will probably break. It isn't the best camera in terms of physical quality, in quality terms the photo quality beats the physical quality. Luckily, I always get insurance on electrical items!!! And I didn't loose my memory card photos either…! Which was lucky as there were some crackers!

I like the style of the camera, its sleek and stylish and it looks fairly expensive. It is very light and small for a camera of such high quality with advanced features so it's very practical to take around with you. I have the silver one, although in some places you can get them in black and pink also.

Conclusion

This camera is an absolutely brilliant price. For what you get, this isn't a 'cheap' camera even though the price is low. Despite the breakages (which were my fault) it is a good camera, although it is a bit light and flimsy but as long as you take good care of it, you won't break it. Keep it in it's case when out of use and utilise the wrist strap that comes with it and you'll be laughin! The pictures are quality, the features are quality and it's the only camera which has ever taken half decent photos of me!

Overall 8/10! 

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