Samsung L830 Camera

All articles on this site are by Harry Skevington unless otherwise noted with another byline

Samsung L830 Digital Camera

I have tested the Samsung L830 for more than a month. That test included Fantasy Fest in Key West and a trip to South Carolina for about three weeks where our daughter gave birth to a baby boy (Brody). The L830 has one of the best video options that I have seen in a digital still camera. Indoor stills were a bit darker than I would have liked when using Auto mode. Some indoor flash shots also seemed to have a slight red hue in them in low light situations with the red eye flash. Outdoors and inside with good lighting the camera was excellent. With an MSR of $ 229.00 (as low as $165.00 on the web) this camera is a good buy for the video alone. Sound dropped out during zoom while making a video but that seems to happen with many digital cameras.

It was quite a month with so much happening. I was able to record much of it with the L830 camera. If you go to my Flickr site you can see photo samples from road trips to Charleston and Savannah, shopping for baby stuff, the hospital, early baby (Grandson) photos in the prep room and at home, beach shots, sunrises, and Thanksgiving photos with the entire family, Check out Youtube to see the quality of a number of short videos. I was just like any other nut with a new camera bugging everyone with photo ops. I gave it a serious workout. The L830 came through quite well. Since I was on the road I used the Lenovo ThinkPad for downloading and storing photos and videos.

The L830 looks stylish in Black, Red or Silver. 8.1 Megapixels give it plenty of resolution for most work. The 2.5 inch LCD is sharp and bright. The 3X optical zoom is supplemented by a 5X digital zoom. I found it very good even at the greatest magnification. I tested a half gig memory card and then moved to a one gig mini using and adaptor with no problem. The 1 Gig card indicated I could expect 400 photos at the default settings of 8 MP Fine and about half that at Super Fine. You can get about ninety minutes of video per battery charge. The battery lasted just under two hours or 200 photos. Less when I was using flash. I found flash recovery to be slow compared to other cameras I have tested. Particularly when using red eye flash. I suggest buying an extra battery or two if traveling where charging is a problem. That goes for memory cards as well. I know you can buy BIG memory cards but I like to have a number of half gig and 1 gig cards so I put the full ones in a safe place. I have heard horror stories where people lost their camera and/or bag with most of their memories of a trip inside them.

I turned on the anti-shake mode immediately and found it helped to steady photos when zooming on the subject and definitely improved videos. I tested the camera using the Auto mode as that seems to be where most people start. I did use the cameras ability to change to preset options like Movie, Nightscene, Portrait, and Scene using the Mode Dial. I also added flash or red eye flash as needed. Other than that I try not to get into settings that require knowledge of photography language. As you get comfortable with the camera you should study the manual and add fine touches. The buttons on the back are very simple to use and become intuitive after a short period of use.

Here is a link to the entire range of specs for the L830 camera.

Above: Slides of a moving car: no zoom, optical, and full zoom taken on the road through the windshield in a moving car. Can read the plate.

Lighthouse- no zoom and zoom to full.

Slides of a dock through trees no Zoom – optical – digital and optical.

A flower and sunrise

The Samsung L830 is a solid entry into the mid-level Digital camera/video scene. If you are turned off by the mention of a slight darkness in low light or red tint with some a few low light red eye flash shots I suggest you look at the Samsung NV 10 or L77.