s600 front,
s600 back, sample images: one , two , three , four , five , six and seven
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Details at a glance
Megapixels: 6
Optical Zoom: 3x
Digital Zoom: 5x
Storage: SD/MMC
Internal: 20mb
Size: 96.8 x 61.8 x 26.4mm
Weight: 136g
We clicked with
Easy of use in basic mode, simple layout of the controls
Shots in the dark
Image quality and shutter lag. Slow and cumbersome to access more advanced features.
Links
More Samsung information
www.samsung.co.uk
Price Comparison:
Samsung Digimax S600
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The S600 sits near the starting point in Samsungs S series of multi function point and shoot cameras which range from the S500 to the S1000 at 10.1 mega pixels.
Coming in at 6 mega pixels, which to some is now considered to be entry level, it boasts 3x optical and 5x digital zoom which is fairly standard across the range.
Now many compact cameras are just that, compact, which is where my large hands sometimes struggle. But this little camera sits nicely in the hand, follows a simple layout and is straight forward to use. And that's good because like most users I was reluctant to read the manual!
Features
The S series sees a step up in specification compared to the A series cameras with changes to the LCD screen size, the balance of optical and digital zoom capability. But the most noticeable difference is the introduction of the Easy Grip design. This starts to make the product feel more like a camera rather than a compact and encourages the user to hold the camera more firmly resulting in sharper pictures.
The S600 has 6 stills modes accessed from the mode wheel on the top of the camera. A further scene selector giving access to 7 other modes via a sub menu (Night, Portrait, Landscape ,Close-up, Sunset, Dawn, Backlight, Fireworks, Beach & Snow) and the video shooting mode.
The macro mode is quite something focusing down to 5 cm, in good light this gives great images. In low light you may find you need to add in a little fill flash and a touch of exposure compensation to take the power out of the flash to get a respectable image.
You can add great effects to your images with the one touch Effects button. This lets you apply in camera sepia and black and white and, add frames and borders. There are also pre set focus frames which aims to stop the classic mistake when shooting two people and the camera picks the background behind them. Another useful feature is composite picture taking which lets you shoot 2 - 4 images to make up one image.
It also has a handy voice memo function giving you 10 seconds of commentary on a still image.
Handling
The camera sits nicely in the hand and gives easy thumb access to the buttons on the rear. It's also slim enough to fit in your trouser pocket and isn't any bigger than a chunky mobile phone. It feels like metal but is in fact a plastic body.
Menus and settings are available though the 4 way paddle wheel which has the OK and Menu access button in the middle - a now familiar set up. The remaining buttons are laid out along side the screen with the zoom control at the top. Even the main mode dial on the top can be reached with your thumb and you get a nice preview of the mode change on the LCD screen - so you don't have to look away from it.
Moving away from pre set modes can be a bit fiddly so needs to be done in advance of you taking pictures. You have a good range of White balance, image size, quality and ISO settings.
There is also a “manual mode” but this is very much a simplified Aperture / Shutter Speed control. While the speed is quite versatile, aperture gives you a choice of either f2.8 or f7.1 in most cases. This give you a simple choice between minimum depth of field (2.8) and “everything” in focus (7.1). Again, exposure control “in shot” is a two button action which makes it a slow process.
The large LCD screen is very clear and you can control its brightness in the menus, this makes for accurate short preview and for checking back afterwards.
Image quality
The Samsung produces an image size of 2816 x 2112 pixels giving between a 2 and 3 MB jpeg file size. As a 6 million pixel camera, the advertisers would like you to believe that you will get A3 prints. Let's see.
Viewing the images at 100% on a calibrated monitor, the edges of objects are a little soft and noise is visible even at ISO 50. Areas of the image are smeary and this usually indicates overactive noise reduction. In addition, in areas of high contrast a halo effect and jagged pixels are present on object edges.
Our advice is forget about A3 prints. If you stick to printing at 6 x 4 and even a 5x7 you'll get admirable quality pictures. Enter into the digital zoom area and image quality is noticeably poorer. Our advice is to stay away from digital zoom and this is especially true S600. The LCD gives a lovely and somewhat flatters the images but you're going to be disappointed when you view them on a computer.
In terms of colour range images come up a little on the yellow side especially when shooting green grass, it seems to look a little unnatural in sun light. However this seems to correct under more subtle light of marginal cloud cover which leads to the conclusion that the Auto White Balance isn't as good as it could be. Reds and blues appear good and strong.
Shooting
The S600 is easy to handle out in the field but the battery life is questionable and auto white balance is dodgy at best - in bright sun the colour cast on the shots varies from pink to yellow.
In addition to that the shutter lag is over 1 second so moving objects are a no no, even in the Children Mode the S600 fails to perform.
But if it's portraits, still life, macro shots and landscapes up to 6X4 you want then this camera does well enough.
One further handling issue concerns the lens. In my testing it jammed twice and the firmware locks up occasionally. These can be fixed by removing the batteries to “reboot” the S600 but this really shouldn't be necessary.
What's not to like
Apart from image quality, the biggest issue is with shutter lag and some of the controls. Exposure control for example takes a number of button presses and combined with a long shutter lag this makes for a slow camera overall.
Camera specification
| Mega-pixels: | 6.0 |
Photo: | JPEG |
| Optical Zoom: | 3x |
RAW: | No |
| Digital Zoom: | 5x |
Aperture: | F2.8-12.4 |
| LCD: | 2.4 inch |
Focal Length: | 35-105mm |
| Dimensions: | 96.8 x 61.8 x 26.4mm |
Shutter speed: | 8 -> 1/1500s |
| Weight: | 136g |
Exposure: | ISO 64 to 1600 |
| Storage: | SD, MMC |
Movie: | 640x480@30fps |
| Internal Mem: | 20mb |
Battery: | 2AA |
| Interface: | USB 2.0, AV |
PictBridge: | Yes |
