Samsung S630

There comes a point in every camera reviewer’s life when the sight of an AA / Ni-MH battery compartment strikes, if not fear and dread, then at least a certain apathy into the heart. After all, what kind of half-decent, self-respecting camera runs on regular AAs? The Samsung S630, that’s what.

It’s easy to be snobby about budget models, especially when they’re under 80 quid and have a shell that feels like a Fisher Price toy. But that would be missing the essential point: that low-price point-and-shoot users have just as much right to good image quality as diehard DSLR photographers. Admittedly in lower-end models sacrifices are made in terms of megapixels, maximum resolution, metering and exposure settings and build design. But there are a variety of reasons for purchasing a good budget model other than the obvious financial one. Maybe you want to buy a child or grandchild their first real camera, for example, or take a relatively inexpensive unit you don’t mind losing on an exotic holiday. Perhaps you just want a cheap and cheerful model in the kitchen drawer for general everyday snaps. If you’re considering any of these things then the Samsung S630 will fit the bill.

Don’t be fooled into thinking that the six megapixels isn’t enough. Compared to the more standard entry-level of around 7.2, this camera might at first seem like an under-achiever. But we’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: resolution and megapixel count are a measure of the print or on-screen quality of an image at large sizes, rather than an expression of the quality at which it’s shot. For this, you need to look at the lens data and zoom, and at the equivalent of 35 – 105mm with a 3x optical zoom, the S630 holds its own against more expensive cameras on the market. Details are sharp, colours are rich and lifelike, and tones and shades are all expressed well, despite not being the widest-angle lens in the world. All our test shots came out brilliantly, so it was difficult to pick the best one! A wide shot of the London skyline was superbly detailed, showing us the filament inside a street lamp in the foreground, a boat’s wake on the Thames in the middle and the sharply defined columns of St Paul’s in the background. It did all this and kept perspective, without being too busy. At full zoom, an optical-digital hybrid of 15x, we could comfortably zoom in on a wall ten metres away and still get a very clear shot. Macro mode is sharp and detailed too, picking up textures well, although with a focal depth starting at 5cm, it becomes a bit blurry if you get too close.

There’s a range of good features on this camera to keep both point-and-shooters and the slightly more advanced user happy. Ten scene modes cover all the usual bases: Portrait, Landscape and Night are all there along with other classics such as Sunset and Fireworks. We were pleasantly surprised to find fill-in and slow-sync flash options, as well as red-eye removal and forced on or off settings that are usually considered adequate for budget cameras. A respectable set of white balance settings let you optimise your shots for sunny or cloudy days and a couple of different artificial lights. Plus a range of colour effects let you play with arty black and white, sepia, deliberately colour cast and negative-toned imagery.

It’s not all sweetness and light, though. The S630 apparently contains 16MB of internal memory – which would be great, except that the camera won’t actually power up without a memory card on board, so we’ll just have to take Samsung’s word for it. The S630 is compatible with SD, SDHC and MMC cards up to 4GB, but one isn’t included. This is a shame as one of the attractions about AA / Ni-MH powered cameras is that you can slot a pair of batteries in and start shooting straight out of the box. We don’t think a basic 128MB SD card would set Samsung back that much, compared to the satisfaction of customers who could start shooting before the ink had time to dry on their receipt. After all, it’s not like Samsung hasn’t saved a fortune on that cheap shell.

The Samsung S630 is a very good camera for the money – the image quality alone will certainly give you your money’s worth. But you do get what you pay for, and while this camera has an intuitive interface and some good ergonomic features, the cheap and somewhat tacky shell is a serious turn-off.