Update July 2008. I will be replacing this camera in the next couple of weeks, and it most definitely will not be a Samsung. This camera has played up on me all the time I've had it. I have lost hundreds of photos, the camera freezes up 50% of the time just as I point and click and I am utterly fed up with it. Annoyingly, it always works perfectly when you don't need it to, for example when trying to take it back to the shop for repairs grrrrrr. The usual scenario goes like this:
see kittens playing cutely together, grab camera.
Turn camera on, lens extends and screen goes blank.
Camera will neither turn off nor turn on properly.
Remove batteries and reinsert, try again.
Repeat the last bit about 15 times.
Camera swings into life, kittens are now fully grown, married with kids.

Isn't it startling how quickly you can go from being a complete ignoramus about something to feeling something of an expert? In my case I'm talking about Digital Cameras and specifically Samsung Digimax. No, I'm not running a camera shop all of a sudden, I've just had quite an unlucky year when it comes to cameras, and am now on my third Samsung. The first was stolen last November, (along with my handbag); the second was chucked on the floor by my one-year-old daughter in June. I was very pleased with the overall performance of both these cameras (different models), so I opted for another Digimax, (plus I knew I'd be able to find my way round the menus easily, unless there were any big changes in there.)

The camera is slightly less bulbous than my previous model, but still sports a weird kind of rotund bit at the side. Although this looks like the kind of spot where a ye-oldy fashioned roll of film might reside, in fact this bit is where you pop your 2 AA batteries. Be warned- buy rechargeable, or you'll be tearing your hair out. Buy 4 AAs so that you can always have 2 on recharge, ready to go.

Taking photos or shooting videos is simplicity itself. There's a dial on the top of the camera which you use to select the mode you want: either video, or photo, with various setting options. You can choose from "Auto" (by far the most useful), "Prog"(ram) which lets you use pre-saved personal settings, "ASR" (which stands for Advanced Shake Reduction), which takes pretty nice pictures of sunsets, "M"(etre), which allows you to manually adjust the metering, if you know about such things, "Scene", which lets you pick from pre-sets for children, landscape, close up, text, sunset and dawn (I don't think they make a huge amount of difference to what you get with "Auto", personally, "Portrait" and "Night". "Auto" works well enough for the majority of pics I want to take, although I do use the "ASR" quite often too, as it does produce quite different results particularly at night. With "ASR" you have to hold the camera slightly longer than normal while the picture is taken, and the ASR technology supposedly helps get rid of any unwanted wobbles that result. This works most of the time, but I find if I've had one or two glasses of wine the technology can't do much about my wobbling!

Deleting photos can be done by pressing the little trash can button, or by selecting "delete" via the menu. The second method gives you more options, like deleting all or protecting cherished pics so that you don't delete them by accident.

Pictures of Samsung S730

Some pictures are ok

The video option works nicely and is easy to use. The video begins to record on pressing the normal camera shutter, and can be paused midway if your pet poodle stops performing for a minute or two in order to scratch his butt. The zoom works while your videoing, which means you can produce some pretty awesome movies. Really. You can capture a frame of your vid and use it as a still, which is a good trick. This is particularly good if you want a nice "unposed" pic of kids, and you also never get red-eye when you obtain pictures this way. The length of video you can record depends, of course, on the size of your memory card. The camera comes with an internal memory of ½ a goldfish, so you would be wise to invest in a card if you intend to use your camera for anything other than display purposes. My card is 512 MB, which gives me about 7 minutes on super-Waitrose quality, or a staggering 23 minutes on crappo-Woolworths quality. This means I could record an entire episode of Neighbours using my Digimax, if I could afford to pay for the plywood sets.

It's a little on the chunky side and won't fit into your pocket, which doesn't bother me, but I know some people care about these things. It comes with a little wrist-strap, but you need to use a proper case, because little bits of dust and grit clog up the dial on the top in no time, and they are not easy to remove.