Reviews
Samsung
Digimax U-CA 3
Can Samsung be cool in digital cameras as well?
Whether
we like it or not, there are areas in life where ãimage is everything.ä
And that's especially true amongst the younger crowd. It is thus
with great dismay that, imagewise, some of the established players
in the consumer electronics market all of a sudden find themselves
on the outside looking in. They're no longer cool. No one knows
exactly when this happened.
Samsung, on
the other hand, is cool these days. What's next? Will Kias be
sick rides and Mitsu Evos not? In any case, Samsung has had plenty
of reasons to smile as of late. Its products are seemingly everywhere.
Samsung smartphones are making some of those formerly hot Scandinavian
jobs look plain dated. And now they're trying to do the same with
digital cameras. But can they back up the hype?
A brief look
at the press release shows that the PR dudes and dudettes know
their targets. The Digimax U-CA 3 is ãaimed at the young photographerä
and ãtoday's young, hip digital photo enthusiasts.ä The camera
is ãpacked with a host of cool features that bring digital creativity
and personalization to a whole new level.ä And only this camera
comes with software that ãallow users to create customized, animated
avatar characters that can be displayed and shared on the camera
and the Internet.ä
Avatars?
Yes, it can do that. A cute little application named DigiStudio
allows you to create virtually limitless variations of animated
Anime-style characters that you can copy to the camera. You can
even use your own face or that of a friend, and you can add MP3
tunes. It's sort of like downloadable ringtones meets The Sims,
and the avatar plays whenever you start the camera. So I am now
greeted by a bowing anime version of myself whenever I turn on
the U-CA 3.
As far as
actual camera features go, the trendy Samsung can hold its own.
With a retail price of $229 it doesn't cost a lot, and you actually
get quite a bit for your money. 3.2 megapixel doesn't set the
world on fire these days, but it's enough even 
for
large prints. There's a 3X optical zoom, 3X digital zoom, and
a LCD that while being small (just 1.5 inches) can actually be
seen outdoors. All controls are simple and logical (and even if
they weren't, the target audience could easily figure them out).
Power comes either from a Duracell 3V Lithium CP1 battery or a
rechargeable version. You can take movies with sound until the
Memory Stick card is full, or you can repurpose the Samsung into
a voice recorder with up to an hour capacity. A macro mode lets
you get as close as two inches, there's a illumination-assist
light that helps getting sharp pictures in the dark, and there
are even some rudimentary editing facilities on board. You can
rotate and trim, and you can also play with the camera's RGB Color
Effect mode. For more extensive editing you can use the supplied
MGI PhotoSuite III SE, which is good software. You can also output
directly to a printer.
I found the
Samsung simple to use. All controls are where you expect them
to be. I was occasionally frustrated by the menus where you're
never quite sure if a setting ãtookä or not. A simple Escape button
would help. The camera itself, though according to the press release
ãscarcely bigger than a cellphoneä (and having the shape and design
of one, too) is handy enough and comes with a very cool nylon
mesh carry bag. Picture quality is so-so, and the camera often
struggles with focusing, but compared to a cellphone camera, the
U-CA is a million times better. And those moving avatars with
MP3 sound are definitely cooler than most of those lame cellphone
greetings.
ö Kirk Linsky
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