The Samsung Digimax i6 – A very cool, highly sophisticated PMP Digital Camera

Unique, Stylish, Cutting Edge and made to Experience Mobility

When I decided to spend serious time on the coast of Maine, I moved to a small town on the mid-coast where I could not only continue with my web activities but spend some serious time enjoying the unique and beautiful coast of Maine.

I soon fell in love with this small coastal community. And it was not only the sheer beauty of the wonders of nature that surrounded me but the people who devoted themselves to maintaining the culture, heritage and what was entrusted to them to pass on to future generations. It is a contagious atmosphere and one that you want to become an active participant in.

Soon I found myself giving back to the community by becoming part of the local volunteer fire department. Trust me, they take this serious … real serious! For the past three years I have had some pretty intense training and there is always more coming. The budget is small … very small so fundraising for equipment, Federal Grants and donations from generous residents, guests in the community and companies that have a desire to be part of this “giving back” to communities allows us to get some of that important equipment that would not necessarily come our way.

With the continual change of the rules and laws that govern rights and responsibilities of firefighting, we believed that it was time for us to get a camera to keep on an engine to use to document activities that take place during an incident. After discussion, it was decided that I would be the one to research what we would get and come back with a recommendation. It was not an easy process; there are lots of cameras out there. Some are good, some are bad, some are designed for specific use others for more general “take a picture and run”.

So what was it I wanted? A camera that was very portable, would fit easily into an exterior pocket of our “turn out gear”, could be used in virtually any lighting condition, had the ability for stills and video, a decent optical zoom, a large TFT screen for viewing pictures on scene, adjustable ISO settings for special circumstances, a large internal memory coupled with the ability to use memory cards, a 5 megapixel CCD or greater and last but not least, an anti-shake mechanism to allow for movement while taking pictures.

I spent a lot of time, looked at a lot of cameras and finally decided that I wanted a Samsung Digimax i6. It had every feature I wanted (plus quite a few more that were not on my list) and without question, the external design of the camera body was by far leaps ahead of the competition. The unique design has a slight curve at one end allowing for your hand to hold the camera easily. It is almost a perfect fit for any size hand and with a variety of different firefighters possibly using this camera; this design is a great feature and will be perfect to carry in the breast pocket of our turn-out gear.

So what does it look like?

 A slightly curved device with a “clip” on the side for firm and easy holding when in use; this device has a black matte finish that makes it look rich. The lens, located in the upper right has an automatic silver sliding cover for protection when not in use. Centered at the top is a flash and just below is the self timer/auto focus lamp. To the right are two tiny holes for the built-in microphone.

The top of the device has conveniently placed for (right handed) one handed operation, the shutter button, power button, ASR mode button and off to the side is the speaker. The right side has a covered earphone jack and the bottom has the port for plugging in the charger and a door covering the battery compartment and memory card slot. The door is easily slid open for quick and easy access to the battery or for quick memory card replacement.

The back of the device sports a large LCD monitor on the left side measuring 2.5 inches and certainly large enough to warrant not having an optical view finder integrated into the device. I have found the display to be excellent in most lighting situations and certainly would find an optical viewer virtually useless because of the equipment firemen wear.

Located above and to the left of the display is a camera status lamp that works nicely for making sure that the camera is ready for use. To the right of the LCD display, perfectly placed for access with your thumb is the Zoom/Volume button at the top. Just below and to the left are the mode and effect buttons and at the bottom you find the 5-function button with a play button and +/- button /delete button at the very bottom.

The exterior of the camera has been designed well and surpasses any of the other cameras I looked at in form, function and ease of use while on the go.

Charging

Connecting the camera to the supplied AC power adapter is easy and the charging function is known at a glance by an indicator lamp located on the charger (see the unboxing video). The length of time for a complete charge varies based on the remaining charge but I have found it to charge to full capacity in a relatively short period of time (although I have not drained the battery). The Lithium Ion battery included is the Samsung SLB-0837 and has a capacity of 3.7V 860mAh. For our purposes, it has been more than sufficient but I would imagine that if you were going to have heavy daily use, consideration should be given to having an additional battery.

Memory

The Samsung Digimax i6 has an internal memory of 45MB which I was pleased to see. Even though we plan to use SD cards, in the event the card was full, this additional available memory serves as a great emergency backup. At the highest resolution of 2816 x 2112 pixels, the file size exceeds 3 MB so using an SD card is a must if you plan on taking a lot of pictures at that resolution. For our purposes, using a 1 GB card with the camera set at 1M (1024X68), we can store well over 2000 pictures at a time … not bad!

Zoom, Macro and Flash

I don’t expect that we will be using this camera in anything other than the “A” setting but I do expect that we will be using the Zoom function often. Changed easily with the zoom button at the rear, you can combine the 3x optical zoom and the 5x digital to achieve a zoom range of 15x. Quality with the digital degrades a bit but it works fine and gives decent results.

The following two shots were taken on a humid, cloudy day.  The picture at the top is a normal shot and the picture below it was zoomed in on the island.  Considering the lighting conditions, I was very impressed with the quality of both pictures.  Why did I choose to show these?  Because most cameras do a decent job in great conditions with the sun at your back.  I wanted to illustrate the quality experienced when conditions were less than perfect.

The macro setting is impressive and has produced some remarkable shots. There is a focus-lock operated by the shutter release that really helps get that perfect shot. The following shot, taken indoors with no lighting others than light that came in through the windows, illustrates the macro with a photo of a page in the user manual.  Note the crisp clear text that was produced.

The flash has 6 settings that pretty much covers all the scenarios most folks would use. The flash is great for “close up” pictures but it not quite strong enough for those night time shots that have some distance involved. Overall, I rate the flash as being good for what it was designed for and I would expect most will be satisfied with the results given its limitations.

The next picture illustrates how well the flash works indoors to “brighten the inside ” and yet allow the exterior to remain in focus.

Effects

There is a digital image stabilizer (ASR) that gives you the ability to take good pictures in difficult circumstances. Although it is not perfect, there is a noticeable difference in picture quality when this used in tough picture taking conditions.  These kids were playing on my beach at my lake house … ahh, it’s nice to be a kid!

There is an “E” program that allows you to add some basic special effects like picture frames or borders. I can’t imagine us using it but there may be that “special picture” that will want to have that “special effect”.

Printing

I was pleased to see that the Digimax i6 supports PictBridge so we will be able to print a picture directly from a printer … that will be our next purchase.

Misc Features

There are a slew of features built in to this camera like the built in MP3 player. I imagine that while we are fighting a fire, if we look over and see the Chief with his head “bobbing” then we will know what he is doing.

For those that are into making those special adjustments, the Digimax i6 has a fairly wide range of ISO value settings (50-400) that can you can use and easily set with the +/- button.

From my perspective, color reproduction has been great although sometimes skin color has been slightly off … but not enough to have a concern.  This shot was taken inside during a department meeting with just the existing florescent lighting.

Conclusion

Over all I am extremely satisfied with this camera. It is lightweight (129.5grams), has an excellent form factor, is easy to use and has produced excellent pictures. The video capabilities have performed well and with the ability to play some music, I would expect that you would find this to be an excellent choice for a “pocket camera”.

Great pictures, large 2.5 inch display, digital image stabilizer, excellent video, a PMP and incredibly easy to use all coupled with a slew of great features. What else do you need for “pocketable” camera?

The Bremen Fire Department would to thank Samsung for their kindness and generosity. Your gift has provided us with the ability to complement and document what we do and to do it with high quality results.

In addition, we want to give a special thanks to the folks at R&J Public Relations, LLC (http://www.randjpr.com/) for the kindness they extended in getting this to happen. We are very grateful for your efforts.

Written by Jack Cook · Filed Under General 
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