Samsung Digimax U-CA 5 Camera Review

Is this one of most under rated or over looked little cameras around? It certainly seems so. I have owned a Samsung Digimax U-CA 5 camera for about 6 years. And after all those years it still works perfectly, and keeps on amazing me with it's reliability and excellent pictures. Samsung cameras on the whole have really shocked me with their ease of use and superb quality pictures. For a company that doesn't specialise specifically in just cameras, they really do make a good one.

The Samsung Digimax U-CA 5 is a 5 mega pixel camera, and in today's market with their being more mega pixels now available for the camera in your mobile phone, the Samsung U-CA 5 camera would be laughed at by most. The professional reviews of the Samsung Digimax U-CA 5 would make you think it's the worst camera ever made! Don't believe them. This is a good little camera that does what it's supposed to - take good pictures. No one expects it to be a DSLR, well except the "expert" reviewers. If anyone is expecting DSLR quality from this camera, then I guess there in for a shock.

The Samsung Digimax U-CA 5 camera has 3 key features. Taking pictures, recording video, and recording audio. There is a push switch at the top of the camera that makes it as easy as just moving the switch from side to side to change which one option you want to use. With just a 64mb memory card it can record  4:16 of video, 1 hour 35 minutes audio, or take 257 pictures with super fine quality enabled. This camera has loads of manual settings to tailor certain picture types. Popular pictures like fireworks, beach & snow, night, portrait, children, landscape, close up, text, sunset and dawn. These are most of the manual modes you can set this camera to. To be honest, I most just use auto a lot of the time and that's good enough for most picture types.

I have never upgraded my Samsung U-CA 5 and it still has the same 64mb memory card that it came with the day I bought it. I know that memory cards are really cheap, specially a 1GB, and if I needed one I would upgrade. But the truth is it's never, or I've never needed it. With just 64mb It has the capacity to take 257 pictures at the smallest size which is 640 x 480. This size is perfect for most of my pictures. If you are not sure of how big that size is just take a look at any of the pictures on this website that I have taken, they are all 640 x 480 in size (when clicked and enlarged) and were all taken with my trusty Samsung U-CA 5, mostly on auto setting. Obviously if you were to up the size the quality would have to be compromised. Using the camera with the smallest image size available and with the "super fine" image quality option enabled, this is probably the best setting for achieving high quality images.

A few days ago I borrowed a Kodak Easyshare C195 camera, which is 14.1 mega pixels. Or so it says. After using the Kodak it was clear that it didn't even come close to the quality and clearness that can be achieved from using the Samsung U-CA 5. Add to that the cheap plastic feel of the Kodak, the very confusing options and terrible flash, and I think it's safe to say that I would never consider buying a Kodak camera. Sorry Kodak fans.

I love insects and nature

I was reading reviews on some highly regarded cameras the other day, and though out the process of looking through many different cameras and reviews, one thing I read from 3 separate people was that they had the Samsung U-CA 5 and were looking to upgrade, so they took the plunge and bought a better camera and couldn't believe that it wasn't miles better than their trusty old Samsung U-CA 5. I'm not saying that the U-CA 5 is the best camera in the world, or even the best point and shoot in its class, but for what it is, and with it being just 5 mega pixels, it really performs much better than expected. It takes great pictures!

It does have a few downfalls though, one being the video mode. Once you have pressed record you can't use the zoom anymore while it's recording video. And the video quality is pretty bad for 2019. Also the shutter speed is pretty slow. But don't we love a few drawbacks. No camera has everything.

The Samsung U-CA 5 has an SHD lens with 2.5x zoom. A 2.5x zoom doesn't seem lot with what's available today, but it's actually not too bad for normal picture taking.

After all these years of use the battery of my U-CA 5 still holds a charge like it did when I first bought it, which I have never experienced with any other product, not just cameras.

Samsung Digimax U-CA 5 cameras must be going for Penny's these days. Although I don't think many places sell them anymore because it's an older model. but you can buy one if it's big brothers for pretty cheap. And if the U-CA 5's anything to go by, I'll bet the newer models must be great too. Actually, that's not always the case. 

If you are looking for a small camera that can take good pictures and you don't want to spend much money, the Digimax range is a very good choice. A Second hand buy would be very cheap now. I just had a look. Some can be bought cheap, but some sellers on eBay actually want like £40 - £50.That's a bit steep considering you can now buy a nice Panasonic LUMIX DMC-FZ28 (used condition) Bridge or similar for that type of money. Still, if you can find a U-CA 5 cheap, like £15 - £20, they are well worth considering.

Update: I still have this camera and it still works. However, it has become faulty after being dropped a few times. But still, it is the most reliable camera I've even owned, giving me well over a decade of trouble free picture taking. I have upgraded to a Samsung WB500. A pretty good cheap upgrade, but not as good in auto mode. But, to its credit it is much better at recording video and makes a great car dashcam. Overall the pictures are good also.