Samsung Digimax 420 OK for a first digital camera!

We bought the camera...a Samsung Digimax 420...at Walmart a few years ago. We paid a little over $200 for it. It is our first digital camera and it really takes nice pictures! There are a few things we don't like about it but the good outweighs the bad.

The camera is small and lightweight. It didn't come with a carrying case so we bought a small one to carry it in. It's pretty durable...we've dropped it a few times and not a thing has been wrong with it afterwards. It's attractive looking...silver plastic casing.

The options are really something! We're still trying out new things. The camera can take pictures in color, black & white, and sepia. The pictures are very sharp and clear if you are just getting 4 x 6 prints made. 5 x 7s aren't too bad.

Hooking the camera up to the computer and printing out or storing pictures on disk is a cinch! Within 3 minutes you have downloaded a few hundred pictures onto your computer and then another couple minutes to copy them to disk.

The one feature I'm not crazy about, which may just be a trait of most digital cameras, is the batteries don't last long. We're constantly recharging the batteries and make sure we have several on hand even when we are going on a day trip. And when I say they don't last long...I mean we take maybe 20 pictures and the batteries are dead. The worst part about that is when I'm trying to download a picture onto Ebay for something I'm selling and right in the middle of everything it just completely shuts down. It is very frustrating! Next camera we get I want to research the battery use and life of a digital camera before purchasing it.

Another thing that is a little frustrating is when you are trying to take just the right picture and you only have a second to get what you are really looking for...you press down on the button...and..........it's a few seconds before it actually snaps the picture. Then in some cases, you don't really have what you wanted in the first place.

The video portion of the camera has a lot to be desired also. Although easy to operate, you don't get a very good video resolution and it takes up a lot of the memory. The sound is also terrible. You have to be practically on top of the subject that you are taping to hear them. We took some video when we went on vacation to Plimoth Plantation in Massachusetts and you can barely make out what our sons are saying. I think that's actually the last time we used the video (Summer of 2005) because it's just a waste of memory.

We have had the camera for a few years and it's still chugging along, but I would really hate to see how much we have in the batteries! It's very durable-been dropped a few times and still works!