In the era of the iPhone it seems that all-in-one models are increasingly du jour. Whilst Samsung's i8 ultra-compact digital camera won't make phone calls for you, it will act as a portable media player (PMP) — incorporating an MP3 player, text reader, voice recorder, World Tour Guide and video playback function. When you have tired of all the little distractions with which the i8 comes equipped, you'll be heartened to know that this 8.2-megapixel (MP) model will still take photos for you as well!
Design
Samsung's evolving series of hybrid cameras has delivered the i8 out of its predecessor, the i7. Where the i7 had a swivelling 3-inch LCD touchscreen, the i8 has gone for a sleeker, simpler aesthetic and a smaller 2.7-inch LCD display. Upholding Samsung's trademark high-gloss, plastic finish, the i8 comes in a range of colours; black, white, pink and light blue — all with a metallic silver bevel towards the back. Problematically, the gloss finish attracts fingerprints like there's no tomorrow, so prepare to become a companion to smudge marks. The camera is petite, with smooth corners and, at only 116 grams (sans battery and card), will happily rest in both the pocket and hand alike.
Features
Externally, the i8's LCD is a clear 230,000 pixel, 2.7-inch screen. It does, however, have a tendency towards motion blur when moving focus from object to object. This could make the camera's lack of an optical viewfinder a real annoyance (think action shots, particularly). For the video playback function of the PMP there is good sound and image quality. It is worth noting that the camera's multifunctional USB port means that you need to use the supplied 20-pin gender cable to connect your headphones. Those headphones supplied with the i8 have a deliberately shortened cord to accommodate this — so be aware that if you want to use your own because you are particular about your audio, you will be dealing with longer than normal wires.
The i8's buttons are the final external feature of note and they are not its greatest asset. Small and stiff to the touch they also lack a recess which would enable your fingers to intuitively find them. The worst offender is the especially hard, and slightly sharp, zoom rocker. None of these features will find a friend in big fingers or in people who have limited manual dexterity. The "shoot" button is not as sensitive as it could be, either (taking a fair bit of effort to compress), and the delay time between photo capture when taking multiple shots is longer than ideal.
The i8's internal menu is divided into three simple set-up sections (scene, shooting and multimedia) which enable a new user to navigate the camera easily, even without the instruction manual at hand. Each menu item is accompanied by a scrolling billboard graphic that describes its function. Along with the Shooting menu's "Photo Help Guide" (which acts as a condensed, on-screen "how-to", talking you through the camera's processes, such as how to adjust colour), these features come together to make the i8 a very straightforward camera to use.
Under "Scenes" the i8 accommodates the usual complement of pre-exposure settings that you would expect of an ultra-compact (the likes of a self-portrait mode, a café mode, even a mode for photographing children). In addition, the camera is better than some of its peers at low light conditions, such as parties, due to having an ISO range to 3,200, rather than the more common maximum of 1,600. There is a dedicated face detection button on top of the camera which doubles as the hold button while in MP3 and PMP mode. Macro, timer, print and flash options are also close at hand with shortcuts easily accessible on the five-function navigation pad. A menu function offers the option of counteracting handshake, which is a great staple.
The i8's menu is somewhat disappointing to look at on-screen. Its images are blurred at the edges in a manner which is reminiscent of old-school computer text. It is slightly sluggish (so changing settings on the fly could become a chore), certain screens give the option of up/down scrolling which simply doesn't exist (it's left/right instead), and there is no master "back" button (so you cannot cancel a new search and return to the original setting, you instead have to reverse navigate your way out). The LCD detailing is consistently lighter post-photo than pre-photo (even when not using the camera's flash), which makes judging the reality of the captured image difficult. Additionally, some of the menu options don't seem to be the best for the job. We found that taking close-ups with the macro function did not always deliver as satisfying a result as taking them with, say, the "still life" scene option — so the camera's pre-set logic is not always a success.
The camera includes 256MB of built-in storage which comes down to around 190MB when on-board features are deducted. This is a virtual wealth of recall considering that the majority of digital cameras come with either nominal or no memory at all. 32MB, anyone? To take full advantage of the multimedia functionality of the camera you'll need to get your hands on a separate SD/MMC (or SDHC) card. We'd recommend the bigger the better, especially if you're travelling. Go for a 2GB MMC or 4GB SDHC so you can continue to grab happy snaps whilst still taking in tunes.
The touted "World Tour Guide" of the i8 is a novelty, at best. It will give you two lines of detail on a number of locations in a number of geographical sites around the globe (for example, Sydney had a Blue Mountains subsection which had two photos and a two-line blurb). Realistically, it is useless for serious travel, and certainly no substitute for a guide book or itinerary. The "Text Reader" function of the camera is, however, truly useful for just that — allowing you to upload text-based documents which you can access on the run (think having flight or itinerary details at hand).
The i8 will give you quality music and video replication as well as voice recording, although you will need to store your tunes as MP3 files, your videos as MPEG4/MPEG layer 2, and voice recording as WAV. If you don't have your music or videos stored in these formats, then the accompanying CD "Samsung Converter", can do the job for you. The player itself is, on a technical level, comparable to an iPod. Its user-interface is also fuss-free, with the usual complement of pre-set equaliser settings (such as Rock and Jazz) it also comes with a "power save" function which kicks in after you've been idle for a while. This is a nice touch considering that it saves the battery power vital for your taking photos — it is a camera, after all!
Instead of using a cradle to charge the camera's battery externally, the i8's battery remains internal to the camera. It is instead fired up by way of the supplied USB charging cable that plugs the i8 directly into a wall socket, with the LED on the cable changing colour to indicate full charge. Whilst this means that you have less camera-related paraphernalia to carry around whilst mobile with your i8, it does mean that the camera is incapacitated — chained to the wall, as it were — whilst charging.
Performance
The fact that the i8 seems intended for "play" rather than performance is obviated by its multimedia functionality. This also becomes apparent with shot speeds. It took 5.6 seconds from camera start-up to first shot. Shot-to-shot takes are not too bad, with an interval of 2.2 seconds, but "not too bad" soon becomes "way too slow" when you turn the flash on and have to suffer a 5.75-second interval. Ouch.
The i8 is a solid starter-kit camera which boosts its personality with a number of novelties. Some are truly useful and others are not. As a converged device, you can expect to get good audio-visual quality in the MP3 and video playback modes, and the "Text Reader" function has truly pragmatic potential. For those starting out, or hoping to be a bit light-hearted with their photography, these and other features of the i8 should prove a hit. For those wanting more agency or control over their photography, or more incisive technology, this is probably one to give a miss.
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TERRY
14/07/2008, 12:27 AM
rating
3/10
This kind of digital camera seems to be amazing if it function great.The video converter that I installed is useless at all co'z I cannot find the Convert button in my XP OS!!.It look's like a presented bogus camera with a very poor installation disc.
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