I got the 7-Megapixel Samsung Digimax A7 for only $197. The camera features a 3x optical zoom lens, 2-inch LCD screen and ships with two rechargeable AA batteries and charger. Sounds like a good deal, doesn't it?
Pictures
The pictures of the Samsung Digimax A7 as well as sample photos I took using it are available at the address below:
What Is Samsung Digimax A7?
The Samsung Digimax A7 is a 7-Megapixel digital camera with 3x optical zoom (38-114mm equivalent), 2-inch LCD screen, optical zooming viewfinder, powered by 2 supplied AA rechargeable batteries.
The camera comes with 2 2300-mAh NiMH AA batteries and a charger. It stores photos and videos in its internal memory (32MB) or on a Secure Digital card (SD). The camera has automatic, scene and manual modes. It can record VGA-resolution video at 30 fps.
Getting Started
The camera arrived with rechargeable batteries and a charger. After charging the batteries and inserting my own 512-Megabyte SD card, I was ready to shoot. The camera has a lid on the side that covers both the battery compartment and the SD card slot. The battery compartment features clearly-marked polarity.
The camera is rather compact but well-built. It has a multi-colored (red/blue) LED in front, that lights up with different colors when the camera is powered on. Pretty pointless, but attracts attention.
The top deck has a mode selection wheel, the shutter release button and the on/off button. The back has the 2-inch LCD screen, optical viewfinder and buttons.
The camera came with a soft case (actually it came in that case), which is convenient.
You turn the camera on or off by pushing and holding the on/off button on the top deck. The lens extends, the lens lid opens and the LCD screen illuminates. In case of the power-off, the opposite sequence happens.
ISO
The camera can be set to Auto ISO, 100, 200 or 400. At first, I was unable to find how to change the ISO (it was in Auto). Even quickly looking through the manual did not help much. It took me a while to find out that the exposure compensation button also adjusts ISO and White Balance.
In Auto ISO mode, the camera used ISO not available otherwise (e.g. ISO 71).
White Balance
The camera has a pretty good automatic white balance system and lets you select among several white balance presets. Some pictures outdoors in cloudy weather came out a little too green, but not too much so.
Modes and Features
The camera has a pretty standard set of features and modes, including automatic and manual modes (Aperture Priority, Shutter Priority and Manual). I was surprised to find that the ISO stays at Auto by default in manual modes. This is unlike most other cameras I have seen. You have to change the ISO manually if you want it to be of the certain number.
Also, by viewing the EXIF of the files later on, I discovered that Auto ISO in some frames resulted in ISO being 71 (yes, seventy-one). Strange, but works.
The camera lets you shoot at different resolutions: 7MP, 6MP, 5MP, 4MP, 3MP, 2MP, 1MP and 640x480. Each can be combined with one of three JPEG compression levels: Standard, Fine and SuperFine. You can also use TIFF format for stills and AVI for videos.
The camera uses a real adjustable aperture and let me select (for example) f/5.6 at moderate wide angle. The maximum apertures are f/2.7 at wide angle, f/4.7 at telephoto. The shutter speed range is 15-1/2,000 sec.
In addition to manual modes, the camera has exposure compensation as well as color effects (B&W, Sepia, RGB) and adjustable sharpness (Soft, Normal, Vivid).
Ease of Use and Ergonomics
The camera has controls that are well-placed and generally easy to use. The menus are pretty easy to use, but could be more organized. I was disappointed that I was unable to find the way to adjust the white balance or ISO without reading the manual. In fact, even looking at the manual for several minutes gave me no clues and I found that you use the Exposure Compensation button for it by going online.
The battery and memory card compartment lid is sturdy and rather easy to open or close. The battery polarity is marked well. The memory card is easy to insert and remove, aside from the fact that to eject the card, you have to push on it and the side of the camera gets in the way of your finger, but only slightly. This is a non-issue.
The information displayed on the screen (shooting parameters, destination: internal memory/SD, battery status, zoom level, etc.) is very easy to understand and arranged well.
Computer Connectivity
The camera has a USB port, but I did not use it. I removed the SD card and used my memory card reader instead.
Performance
The camera takes about 3-4 seconds to power on or off, which is not very fast. The focusing is rather fast (under a second in all light conditions), but sometimes the camera fails to focus in very dim light, displaying a large red warning across the screen. There is no focus-assist light to help in such situations.
The camera has a tendency to display photos slowly in review mode. The rough picture appears rather fast, but takes almost a second to become smoother, which is a little annoying.
The camera can take pictures at about 1-2 second intervals, which I find sufficient. The flash recycle time is about 5-6 seconds. The zooming is slightly noisy, but works well.
Picture Quality
Sample: Wide angle (click for full-size image)
The camera produces pretty good pictures with high detail level and good resolution (at 7MP). The largest (lowest-compression, SuperFine) JPEG was 3.4 MB in size, but even at 1.7-MB size the picture quality was very good. The pictures are sharp and you can see the small details. I did not see much softening in corners.
But there is chromatic aberration (purple fringing) around the edges of some objects, even in scenes with little contrast. The chromatic aberrations are not large in size and should not be bothersome or even noticeable at small prints.
The noise is very low at lower ISO settings (up to ISO 100; ISO can be lower than 100 in Auto ISO mode), gets worse at ISO 200 and the images get rather noisy at ISO 400. If you only going to print 6x4 photos, this might not matter at all. For larger prints, try to stay in ISO 100 range.
Pros
Comes with batteries, charger and even a nice case, uses inexpensive and compact SD cards, can use 2 AA batteries, good feature set, resolution, sharpness and manual controls, compact size.
Cons
Some purple fringing (will only be noticeable on large prints), slow startup and shutdown, no focus-assist light.
Bottom Line
If you want an inexpensive high-resolution digital camera that is powered by 2 AA rechargeable batteries that come with it, the Samsung A7 is a good choice. Not only it comes with batteries and charger, it even includes a nice soft case. The only thing you need to get additionally is an SD memory card.
But if you mostly plan on using your camera in low-light conditions, you might want to check out cameras that have a focus-assist light. If you don't need 7-Megapixel resolution (and many people don't), I can recommend the Canon PowerShot A520 4-Megapixel Digital Camera or the Panasonic Lumix DMC-LZ2 5-Megapixel Digital Camera with 6x Optical Stabilized Zoom. Both use 2 AA batteries and SD cards. If size and number of batteries is not an issue, check out the Canon PowerShot A610 5-Megapixel Digital Camera and the Canon PowerShot A620 7.1-Megapixel Digital Camera.
Recommended
Yes
Product Rating
(Above Average)
This review is also available at Epinions.com: Samsung Digimax A7 Digital Camera Review on Epinions.com