Samsung Digimax L60 - digital camera review: Samsung Digimax L60 - digital camera

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A fairly flexible point-and-shoot camera, the Digimax L60 is the 6-megapixel member of Samsung's L series of high-end point-and-shoot cameras. This easy-to-pocket camera is about the size of an iPod and weighs just 5.3 ounces. It sports a nice handful of image settings for the casual shooter, but more advanced photographers might find it lacking. Users who prefer lots of manual controls might want to check out the L60's bigger brother, the Samsung Digimax L85.

The Samsung Digimax L60 has a fairly standard control scheme: power button and shutter release on top, 2.4-inch TFT LCD and camera controls on the back. Next to the screen sit the zoom rocker; a four-way-plus-OK control pad; and mode, effect, setting/delete, and review/print buttons. A wide lanyard hole sits between the zoom rocker and the control pad, with its textured base serving as a small thumb rest. The effect and setting buttons let you access the most often used features in the camera without digging through menus. Fans of tiny tunnel-like portals will note that the camera lacks an optical viewfinder.

The Samsung Digimax L60 is light on manual controls, but there are enough presets and image tweaks with which to take decent photos. The camera can reach sensitivity settings from ISO 50 to ISO 400, offers plus or minus 2EV exposure compensation in 1/2EV steps, and includes seven different white-balance settings for various types of lighting. Beyond the standard auto and program modes, the L60 sports 11 scene presets for portraits, sunsets, and other common situations. Shots can be altered with various image effects, such as several color presets and RGB intensity adjustments. The camera also includes a handful of built-in frames, image highlights, and composite photo settings if you want to get playful with your shots. Finally, the Digimax L60 has a 30fps VGA movie mode that records MPEG-4 video files.

The Samsung Digimax L60 generally performed well in our tests, except for a very sluggish burst mode. The camera took just 2.1 seconds to wake up, after which we could snap a photo every 2 seconds. With the onboard flash enabled, we still managed a respectable 3-second lapse between shots. The shutter lagged a standard 0.7 second with our high-contrast target and 1.6 seconds under low-contrast lighting. The camera's burst mode disappointed us, taking 24 shots in 33 seconds, resulting in a meager rate of 0.7fps.

The Digimax L60 produced some very nice images, even at higher ISO settings. Colors were neutral, and fine details were visible. We noticed heavy purple fringing along contrasting edges, but that was the only major fault we could find with the camera's images. Shots were nearly noise-free at lower ISO levels and developed an unobtrusive, fine grain at ISO 400.

The Samsung Digimax L60 is a solid point-and-shoot camera with a handful of image settings and solid performance. Despite some purple fringing, the camera's images are crisp, detailed, and fairly noise-free. Unfortunately, its burst mode is slower than that of most cameras of its class, so this isn't the best choice for shooting sports. If you don't mind an occasional purple halo and don't have to snap rapid photos, the Digimax L60 is a strong choice.