About 5 years ago I met you my dear old friend. We had many fun and sad times these past few years. I feel that our time together is now over. I am sorry to say but after all those days where you couldn’t come through for me have finally pushed me to the end. I am sorry dear friend, but I must get my new camera…

Hmmm… Writing a message to an old camera… How nerdy can it be? Well now that is off my chest, its time to talk about my new best friend, I mean camera. The Samsung s850. Yes it is not as fanciful as a Sony or a Canon, but it is as strong as those big ol’ DSLR. Well not really but still, its feature is tough to beat for its price. Since we’re talking about price, I might as well mention that this 8.1MP beauty is only around $180? Or in my case only $159 at B&H photo. But they say mega pixels isn’t everything; I believe that is true. That’s why I chose this ~~bad boy~~. Like those big ol’ DSLR this camera can do Shutter and Aperture priorities

Features (Pros)

Samsung s850 is feature packed for the price. Not only does it have Priorities mode, it also has “Advanced Shake Reduction”, 5x Optical Zoom, and the somewhat useful, zooming in while recording. The camera can open its eye for about 15 seconds. Although not the best in the business, it is great for its class. It can open its eye as big as F2.8 or as small as F7.4. And just in case that isn’t good enough it has ISO 50-1600. Although I’ll probably keep it at the low end of the scale. So now for some bullet points…(Basically a recap…)

Aperture Priorities
Shutter Priorities
8.1 MP
ASR (Advanced Shake Reduction)
5x Optical Zoom
Voice Recording
20MB of internal memory
Black in color
SHD Lens (ehhh…)
Takes 2 AA Batteries
Comes with DIGIMAX Master, USB cable, and AV Out cable
2.5″ screen

Durability (Cons)

Yes I believe the features are the Pros and the Durability are cons. For now anyways. The first time I grabbed this camera it seemed sturdy a good weight and feels like quality. But after closer inspection (If you call looking at it for a couple minute thorough inspection…) It wasn’t as sturdy as I originally thought. The plastic cover of the lens is very flimsy easily open (By pushing it or just touching it). The hand strap eyelets (holes) sticks out of the camera I don’t know why.

I don’t know if this is worse but the strap itself seems like it came from a toy camera. It is about as thin as a $20 dollar camera straps my dad got from an eBay auction. The USB doesn’t close (stay close for that matter) very well. The tripod mount seems very very cheap.

The battery cover is sort of hard to remove Which means that You will need to put more “umphh” into it which I believe will cause it to break very easily. The power button is really recessed in, making it tough to turn on the camera. Most of the time I had to push it twice to turn it on. The d-pad is also sort of flimsy. Speaking of the buttons, it strangely looks familiar to the Canon SD800 IS. (Recap)

Handstrap eyelet
Handstrap
Lens cover
USB cover
Tripod Mount
Recessed power button
D-pad

Other Cons

You can’t take pictures smaller then 1024×768px. Which is bad if you need more space and you’re only taking pictures for the web. You can’t use digital zooming while using ASR/record mode (oddly you can use the optical zoom). No Optical IS, Histogram, and no RAW. Although that seems like a lot of cons, keep in mind this camera is only $160. ~~And a Samsung… Just kidding~~.

Final thought

So far I am very happy with this camera. As Cnet said, I believe this is a good camera for newbies. It is designed very well for the price. The blue accent works out really well on the black. So far I would suggest this to my friends and people interested in photography who doesn’t want to spend much. All the above picture is taken with my good ol’ pal ( emphasize on “ol”) Sony DSC-p7. Although unrelated but I bought this 3.2MP camera for a whopping $400. Darn I can buy a Nikon D40 with that money… and another $100.