Product Reviews

Few £100 cameras are as capable as Samsung's S85. Its headline specifications include an eight-megapixel sensor, 5x optical zoom, 2in screen and face detection, making it hard to separate on paper from the premium cameras in this month's Labs test on page 106. The plastic case isn't the most stylish, though, and at 210g it's a little heavy for a compact camera, although not enough to make it feel cumbersome.

Performance is often the first thing to go when designing a budget camera, but the S85 is quick, taking a shot every 1.9 seconds. The fast auto-focus had a large part to play in this,

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although it couldn't focus on subjects less than 80cm away without activating the macro mode. A second, super-macro mode was required to focus from 1-5cm. This is a little convoluted for our liking, but if it contributes to the fast performance then it's a fair compromise, and the 1cm macro focus is a real treat.

Our image quality tests produced photos that we would be happy to get from a camera costing twice as much. Colour accuracy was hard to fault, detail was crisp and noise levels were acceptable even at ISO 800. The camera proved capable of excellent indoor photos, but poorly judged automatic settings gave needlessly slow shutter speeds, resulting in blur. Setting the ISO speed manually quickly solved the problem, but casual users won't want to be grappling with these settings.

The inclusion of Ni-MH batteries and a charger in the box makes the S85 even better value than the very similar Samsung S850 (reviewed in What's New, Shopper August 2007), although the disappearance of priority modes and manual focus is regrettable. However, as with the S850, it's the misjudged automatic settings that take the shine off what would otherwise be an unbeatable camera.