Samsung S850

Manual Control Options
The Samsung S1050 and S850 have full manual functionality with a range of exposure modes. Manual, shutter speed priority, aperture priority, and program modes are available in addition to the many automatic and scene modes. There are several manual controls, but they are placed in a few different menus. The auto focus mode can be changed in the main menu, while settings like white balance, ISO, and others are changed in the "+/-" menu. Pushing the "+/-" button several times cycles through options to manually change the shutter speed and aperture when in the manual or priority modes. In conclusion, there are plenty of manual controls but they aren’t very easy to access.

Focus
Auto Focus – The Samsung S1050 has two auto focus modes, Multi and Center, in addition to the trendy face detection auto focus technology. The face detection system is advertised as being able to track 9 faces at a time, but every time I pushed the designated button the camera froze. The through-the-lens auto focus system can focus as close as 10cm in the macro mode, and 80cm to infinity in the normal focusing modes. A large, white auto focus assist lamp can be activated in the setup menu to help the camera focus in low light. The auto focus worked well while shooting still images, but looked furry in the movie mode.

Manual Focus – Manual focus could not be found on the pre-production model’s menus, but the Samsung S1050 and S850’s spec sheets claim there will be a manual focus setting that can focus as close as 10cm.

ISO
The "+/-" menu calls up a frequently used settings menu that shows up atop the live view. Auto, 80, 100, 200, 400, 800, and 1600 ISO options can be found here. This is a great range for a compact digital camera, and all the options are available at full resolution.

White Balance
The "+/-" menu also shows the white balance settings: Auto, Daylight, Cloudy, Fluorescent H, Fluorescent L, Tungsten, and Custom. The Custom setting could not be set on the pre-production model. There was a live view of the other options, though, which seem to be in good working condition.

Exposure
The exposure can be manually set in the manual or priority modes, or users can adjust the exposure compensation in the "+/-" menu. The +/- 2 range allows for only ½ steps, just short of the 1/3-step standard. Point-and-shooters shouldn’t mind this change, and advanced users probably won’t use it much anyway. The face detection system can also adjust the exposure, as it uses the lighting from the face to ensure proper exposure. A live histogram can be seen if users select the "full" display info within the recording menu.

Metering
The Samsung S1050 and S850 have Multi and Spot metering modes, which seem to work well judging by the live view in the "+/-" menu and the resultant pictures. There is also a "Back Light" scene mode that uses the spot metering setting to get proper exposures with backlit subjects.

Shutter Speed
A mechanical and electronic shutter system is incorporated into the new S-series Samsung digital cameras. It is automatically controlled in the scene modes and has a published range of 1-1/2000th of a second. The published manual shutter speed range is 15-1/2000th of a second, but I got the pre-production S1050 to open for 16 seconds. To manually adjust the shutter speed in the manual and priority modes, the "+/-" button must be pushed a few times to cycle through the menu and aperture. Once on the shutter speed option, the multi-selector must be pushed on the right and left sides to move through the range.

Aperture
The Samsung S1050’s published maximum apertures are f/2.8 in wide and f/4.4 in telephoto. I can confirm the nice and wide f/2.8 aperture setting, but the camera did strange things once I started zooming in with the 5x Samsung SHD lens. The aperture is automatically controlled except when in the manual and aperture priority modes, when users need to find the proper "+/-" menu and scroll up and down with the multi-selector. The aperture got as small as f/7.4 when the lens was zoomed out at its widest. When I tried to manually set the aperture in telephoto, gibberish numbers and halves of numerical characters appeared. This is definitely a pre-production phenomenon.