Samsung Digimax L85

I won the Samsung Digimax L85 in a photographic competition..At first appearance the L85 is larger physically than most digital point and shoot cameras on the market..This can be an advantage especially for male users and people who are use to SLRs and DSLRs..I find it fits into my hands nicely..
In appearance it smacks of the Leica M series range finder cameras with its black body and silver edges even down to the metal silver knurled mode dial..The LCD monitor on the back is a useful 2.5 inches and is exeptionally,, bright handy in bright sunlight..One disadvantage is that the L85 doesn't have a view finder which is getting more common on point and shoot digital cameras these days..The back panel has the usual array of buttons such as zoom,image playback,image delete,menu button etc on the right of the LCD screen..The top panel is fuss free having the mode dial,power button and shutter button plus a microphone for video and voice recording..The base panel has USB connection port,battery and SD card chamber and a tripod socket..The design of the Samsung Digimax L85 is user friendly and clutter free..
Now down to the business of useage..I am impressed with the 8.13 mega pixel image quality even next to my Canon 20D and Canon 350D cameras..The image is sharp and well saturated and noise is controlled well especially up to 200ISO..I put this down to the excellent Schneider-Kreuznach optics...Optical zoom is a useful 5X with a maximum aperture of f2.8..Exposure compensation and auto and custom white balance settings are useful for the more advanced user..
The L85 has the usual mix of modes found on most digital camera plus full manual exposure and focusing..Manual focusing is fiddly so I found it best to auto focus which is fast in "normal" outdoor situations..It's Movie Clip mode is a full 30 frames per second and has an anti-shake option..
This Samsung comes with a few neat features in it's special effects mode like 8 Photo Frames and composite shooting where one can combine 4 different shots in the one image like a simple multiple expose setting..
My L85 arrived with a charging/computer connection cradle and remote control which is very handy optional extra..Also this unti is the first (reputedly) with High Definition Media Interface (HDMI) for plugging straight into your High Definition TV..
All in all the L85 is a great package for the point and shoot digital camera user especially with it's 8.13 mega pixel image size..
I would recommend the Samsung Digimax L85 for anyone who is looking to get into digtal point and shoot photography just for the image quality alone..

Image quality from the 8.13 mega pixel sensor.
Excellent Schneider-Kreuznach optics.
Continous macro focusing 10cm to infinity.
Bright 2.5 inch LCD monitor.
30 frames per second Movie Clip.
High Definition Media Interface (HDMI)
Solid build quality.

Fiddly menu.
Menu and fuction button too small for man sized fingers.
No view finder.
Tiny 28MB internal memory,,buy a 1MB SD card just for the convienience.
Built in flash could be more powerful.
Built in flash easily covered by fingers when tripping shutter button..

Nikon Coolpix 3200