Samsung S85 Review

The entry-level Samsung S85 has - as you might guess from the name - a sensor resolution of eight megapixels coupled to a Samsung SHD-branded 5x optical zoom lens. This provides a zoom range from 38mm - a moderate wide angle - to a useful 190mm telephoto, with maximum aperture varying from a fair f/2.8 at wide angle to f/4.6 at telephoto. The S85 can focus to a minimum of one centimeter at wide angle in Super Macro mode.

The Samsung S85 features a 2.5 inch LCD display, USB 2.0 (full-speed) connectivity, 20MB of built-in memory, ISO sensitivity from 50 - 1600, shutter speeds from 15 - 1/2000 second, a maximum of 5x digital zoom and 12x playback zoom. The S85 also offers a Motion JPEG movie mode capable of recording at resolutions up to 640 x 480 pixels at 30 frames-per-second with audio, and optical zoom is supported while recording movies.

Other S85 features include multi, center-weighted or spot metering, seven white balance modes including custom, 14 scene modes (Night, Portrait, Children, Landscape, Close-up, Text, Sunset, Dawn, Backlight, Fireworks, Beach & Snow, Cafe, Food, Self Shot) as well as full Auto, Program and Manual exposure modes, and a five-mode built in flash. Samsung's S85 stores images on Secure Digital cards (including the newer SDHC cards), or the previously mentioned built-in memory. Power for the S85 comes courtesy of two AA batteries (with alkaline disposables in the product bundles), and the included software is Samsung Digimax Master.

The Samsung S85 will ship late September, at a suggested price of US$229. Dimensions, weight and some other details are unknown at this time, as specifications are preliminary.