Samsung's entry into the ultra
compact digital camera market is the Digimax i5. The
size of a deck of cards, the Digimax i5 packs a 5-megapixel
resolution and a 3X optical zoom into a colourful metallic
body that can be had in red, black, gray or stainless steel.
With few external controls, the
Digimax i5 offers a smooth shape that is clearly intended to
slide easily into a pocket. When turned off, the lens, flash
and AF-assist/self-timer lamp below are all covered by a metallic
shutter that slides up to protect them.
Starting with the elongated
2-stage shutter release on the right, three buttons
plus the microphone and the speaker are aligned on top of
the camera. The centre button is the power switch,
a mid-size chromed button, while to its leftis the
Safety Flash button:
Safety Flash is an
oddly named mode that forces off the flash while
boosting ISO sensitivity so that images that would have
required the added light of the flash are captured without
it.
The other controls are located
on the back of the camera, which is mostly occupied by the
large 2.5-inch, high resolution LCD monitor that has 230,000
pixels.
A total of 6 controls are organized on the right side of
the monitor, and a small space is provided to rest the thumb
when the camera is used.
There is no optical viewfinder.
At the top right is the zoom
control which, in addition to controlling the lens, can also
be used when the camera is in playback. The W side
can be used to show 9 thumbnails ()
per screen of the images that have been captured; while the
T side serves to magnify an image ()
on the monitor up to 10.1X, if the image was captured at the
highest resolution.
Below and to the left of the
zoom control is the M button. The "M"
stands for Mode but the button can be used to start
the camera, just as if it was the power button, but bypassing
the Start image of the Digimax i5, and entering the capture
mode directly. In addition, when the camera is On,
the M button can also be used to call up a special
menu that is a shortcut to the camera's capture modes, bypassing
the need to go through the camera menu, and can even be used
to confirm a selection.
Once the M button is pressed, three modes are immediately
accessible using the right/left arrows of the multi-direction
control:
Auto: is
the simplest still image mode of the i5. With this mode,
the camera handles everything and the user simply presses
the shutter release.
Manual: does not provide
any user control over the aperture or shutter speed, but
provides control over most other aspects of the camera,
including exposure compensation, sensitivity, white balance,
colour tone (RGB), etc.
Movie Clip:
the i5 can capture MPEG-4 (AVI) video clips with or
without mono sound, at either 15 or 30 frames per second,
and at any one of three image sizes for as long as there
is memory space:
640 x 480 pixels,
320 x 240 pixels,
160 x 128 pixels.
The zoom remains adjustable, but if it is used during
recording the camera automatically mutes the sound to
avoid capturing the noise made by its motor. Focus and
white balance are fixed at the first frame and the digital
zoom is not available. The exposure, however, is dynamically
adjusted as the recording progresses. A digital stabilizer
can be enabled in the Movie mode menu, but it reduces
the image size and can make the image appear a bit jerky,
and lagging with respect to real-time.
Pressing the Up arrow of the control allows stepping
through the Scene modes, of which there are 11.
When Scene modes are used, there is no user access to white
balance, exposure compensation, or sensitivity as all are
controlled by the camera:
Night: allows exposures
as long as 16 seconds. By default, the camera sets the
flash to slow synch, but it can be turned Off. The Night
mode allows selecting the long shutter speed (1 through
16 seconds or Auto) and the aperture (f3.5 or f6.3 at
the widest angle and f4.5 or f8 at the maximum telephoto,
or simply Auto).
Portrait: uses a large aperture (f3.5 through
f4.5 depending on the zoom position) to help blur the
background, and make the subject stand out. The flash
is set to Auto with red-eye reduction.
Children: prioritizes the shutter speed so as
to capture clear images of fast-moving subjects. The auto
focus is set to Continuous mode and the flash to Auto
with Red-eye reduction.
Landscape: accentuates greens and blues while
turning off the flash and focusing at infinity.
Close-up: switches to macro focus, sets the focus
mode to Continuous and the flash to off.
Text: is designed to capture printed materials,
and to do so the mode sets the camera to macro focus and
forces off the flash. Moreover, software supplied with
the camera (Digimax Reader) can be used to do text recognition
on photos of text captured with the i5.
Sunset: increases warm tones (reds) in the image
to enhance the sunset colours and turns off the flash.
Dawn: increases the saturation of cool colours
(blues) in the image and turns off the flash.
Backlight: applies the flash to provide fill-in
light to a backlit subject.
Fireworks: allows exposures as long as 4 seconds
while forcing the flash off and setting the focus to infinity.
Beach and Snow: uses exposure compensation to
correct the effect of overly bright subjects such as water
and snow. The flash is set to Auto mode by default.
With the camera set to the Playback
mode, the M button takes on a different role. Then
it is called the Album button and it calls up a short
menu that serves to select and organize images by moving them
to any one of the i5's 8 albums, or to select albums
for a slide show.
The remaining buttons are grouped by the 4-direction control
with the MENU/OK button at its centre. The button above
the 4-direction control, ,
starts the Playback mode and if pressed for more than a couple
of seconds while the camera is turned off, will start the
camera directly in the Playback mode. Furthermore, pressing
the Play button for more than a second while an image is displayed
on the monitor displays the basic shooting data which includes
image size, aperture, shutter speed, ISO, Flash mode and the
date.
In addition to providing for menu navigation, the 4-direction
control provides control over 6 other functions, depending
on the camera mode:
Voice Recorder Mode makes it possible
to use the Digimax i5 as a digital voice recorder. The
maximum recording time is limited to 1 hour.
In addition, the up direction also
allows adding a 10-second voice annotation immediately
after an image is captured, or when the image is displayed
on the monitor in Playback.
The right direction starts the
Self-timer which offers three modes:
a 2-second delay,
a 10-second delay,
or a Double Self-timer which captures 1 image after
10 seconds, and a second 2 seconds later.
The down direction starts the
Macro Mode. The i5 has 2 basic Macro modes:
Auto Macro ()
has a focus range of 5 cm (1.95 in.) to infinity, and
is the default mode when the i5 is set to the Auto
shooting mode.
The standard macro mode ()
of the i5 also has a focus range that starts at 5 cm
(1.95 in.) at the wide angle end and 20 cm (7.8 in.)
at the telephoto end, but which is limited to a maximum
focus distance of 50 cm (19.5 in.) for both.
In addition, when using the manually selected Macro
mode, the i5 also offers a Super Macro mode ()
that allows capturing a subject positioned from 1 to
5 cm (0.39 to 1.95 in.) from the front of the lens.
While in Playback, the down direction
of the control serves to Start or Pause sound recordings
or movie clips.
Last, the left direction of the
control serves to select the Flash mode, cycling
through: Auto Flash, Auto with Red-eye Reduction,
Fill-in Flash, Slow-Synchro, and Flash
Off.
The remaining button on the i5's back is labelled with the
Exposure Compensation symbol, but in fact calls up
a short menu when the camera is set to the Manual shooting
mode:
The first option, which appears at the
bottom of the menu, is for Exposure Compensation,
possible over a range of ±2 EV in 1/2 EV increments.
The second option is for White Balance, providing
presets for Auto, Daylight, Cloudy, Fluorescent H, Fluorescent
L, Tungsten and Custom so the white balance can be set
to the ambient light conditions.
The third option serves to set the CCD
sensitivity: Auto, 100, 200, and 400 ISO.
The fourth option, RGB, is to adjust the
image colour, allowing for adjustments to Red, Green
and Blue.
Finally, in the Playback mode, the
button allows deleting an image while it is on the screen.
When the camera is set to
the Night mode, the
button serves to open a short menu from which the shutter
speed and/or aperture can be selected.
As tested here, the Samsung Digimax i5 was supplied with
a nicely finished flexible pouch. Closed with Velcro, the
pouch is designed to allow the camera's wrist strap to be
out on one side, and also provides a belt loop on the back.
The Digimax i5's most valuable features in terms of ergonomics
are its extremely compact size and its 2.5-inch, high resolution
LCD monitor. The layout of its controls is generally good,
and so is the way they respond in use.
However, when using the camera, it becomes obvious that fingers
easily stray towards the corner where the lens and flash are
located. Indeed, the large monitor takes up most of the back
and there is precious little space for the left hand to hold
the i5 short of holding it with the index and thumb at the
top and bottom of the camera.
Compare Prices for Samsung DIGIMAX I5 Digital Camera Battery (BLI-222)
Ergonomics
)
per screen of the images that have been captured; while the
T side serves to magnify an image (
)
on the monitor up to 10.1X, if the image was captured at the
highest resolution. 
,
starts the Playback mode and if pressed for more than a couple
of seconds while the camera is turned off, will start the
camera directly in the Playback mode. Furthermore, pressing
the Play button for more than a second while an image is displayed
on the monitor displays the basic shooting data which includes
image size, aperture, shutter speed, ISO, Flash mode and the
date. 
)
has a focus range of 5 cm (1.95 in.) to infinity, and
is the default mode when the i5 is set to the Auto
shooting mode.
)
that allows capturing a subject positioned from 1 to
5 cm (0.39 to 1.95 in.) from the front of the lens.
