Digital Camera Review

First Impressions Review

Jan 10, 2007 - By Emily Raymond
Samsung announced several new digital cameras at the Consumer Electronics Show, including two from its point-and-shoot S-series. The 10.1-megapixel Samsung S1050 takes the helm as the flagship model, with the 8.1-megapixel Samsung S850 as the sidekick. Both digital cameras have face recognition technology and matte black metal bodies that look very similar to Samsung’s NV-series. A 5x optical zoom lens sits at the front of both of these cameras too. The only differences between the two digital cameras are the price and the LCD screen size. The Samsung S1050 costs $349 and has a 3-inch LCD screen. The Samsung S850’s screen is smaller at 2.5 inches but comes at a price fifty dollars less.
Advertisement


Picture Quality / Size Options
The Samsung digital cameras are equipped with a 1/1.8-inch CCD, but different amounts of resolution are available on it. The Samsung S1050 has 10.1 megapixels and the S850 has 8.1 megapixels. The Samsung S1050 has the following options within its “+/-“ menu: 10M, 9M (3:2), 7M, 6M (W), 5M, 3M, and 1M. In the same menu are the following compressions: TIFF, SuperFine, Fine, and Normal. All consumer compact digital cameras have JPEG files, but not very many support the larger TIFF file anymore. This type of file isn’t as compressed as JPEG, allowing for more editing in software later.

Picture Effects Mode
The Samsung S1050 and S850 have more picture effects than most digital cameras. The number of effects and color modes is comparable with Canon PowerShot’s My Colors mode. The following menu is available by pushing the designated “E” (effects) button.

Color
Normal, Black & White, Sepia, Red, Green, Blue
Special Color
Off, On (circle of color in center of black-and-white frame)
Image Adjust
Off, +1, -1 (didn’t work on pre-production model)
fUN
Off, Word Bubbles (9 different templates to make cartoons), Highlight (softens background around subject), Split Frames (4 templates), Frames (9 of them)
Control Options Page 7 of 10 Connectivity / Extras
Samsung S1050 and S850 First Impressions Review Navigation
  
Advertisement