Reviews

Samsung Digimax U-CA 3

Whether we like it or not, there are areas in life where ãimage is everything.ä And thatâs 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. Theyâre no longer cool. No one knows exactly when and how this happened.

Samsung, on the other hand, is cool these days. Everyone says so. Whatâs next? Will Kias be sick rides and picked over Mitsu Evos and Subies? Be that as it may, 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 theyâre 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 Samsung PR folks know their targets. The Digimax U-CA 3 is ãaimed at the young photographerä and ãtodayâs 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 Digi-Studio 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. Itâs 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 Samsung U-CA 3.

As far as actual camera features go, the trendy Samsung can hold its own. With a retail price of $229 it doesnât cost a lot, and you actually get quite a bit for your money. 3.2 megapixel doesnât set the world on fire these days, but itâs enough even for large prints. Thereâs 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 werenât, 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, thereâs 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 cameraâs 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 youâre 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.

÷Kirk Linsky

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