Modern day gadgets are all about convergence; and so is our mindset. Samsung's newest addition to their i-series cameras is based on similar lines. The i85 is a digital still camera, a Portable Media Player (PMP), a voice recorder, a text reader and, the best of all, a tour guide all rolled into one device. I have high hopes for this one, let's see how it goes. The Camera

The i85 is Samsung's third model to encompass PMP functionality. It has an 8MP CCD, a 5x optical zoom lens (36-180mm eff), and a 3-inch LCD screen at the back; among other things. The body of the i85 has a distinctive CMF (Color Material Finish) stainless finish and is available in a variety of colors like red, black, gold, and silver. The PMP functionality in the i85 enables users to watch movies, music videos, television shows and even their favourite music while on-the-go. Another striking feature of the device is the World Tour Guide function, which provides travel information covering 4,500 sites in 30 countries; this should be helpful for users who want to plan trips and find their way around while on the road. The travel information files need to be downloaded separately though. Design The i85 is every bit sleek and compact it looks in the pictures. The CMF body is smooth and has a piano finish; it's a finger print magnet, in short. The slight curve in the body towards the right side of the camera makes it easier to grip while clicking pictures or shooting videos.

The back of the camera accommodates a 3-inch LCD screen (230,000 pixel resolution) and has small 5-way navigation keys and function controls along with the zoom rocker. Placed on top of the LCD are the Face Detection, Mode select and Review keys. The buttons seem to be rather small and can be a problem for those who have humongous fingers.

The speaker (boasts of SRS 3D acoustic technology), power On/Off switch, and shutter release button are placed on top of the camera. A headphone jack is placed at the right hand side of the camera, allowing you to use the included headphones for listening to your MP3 music files, movies, etc. The battery and the memory card compartment are placed at the bottom of the camera. The spring mechanism that holds the lid looks delicate and needs to be used gently and carefully. Also, removing the memory card is a little tricky, given the position of the slot. There are chances you'll damage the battery compartment cover if you're not careful enough. <__PAGETITLE__Design __/PAGETITLE__> Specifications

<__PAGETITLE__Specifications __/PAGETITLE__> Camera Features As said, the Samsung i85 features an 8 MP CCD and an internal 5x optical zoom lens that has a focal range of f=6-30 mm (36-180mm eff) and has a maximum aperture of f/3.5-f/4.9. The Shutter speed ranges from 16 to 1/2000 sec. The i85 uses a TTL contrast detection AF system for focusing and also uses a low light focus assist beam for shooting in low light conditions. The built-in flash has 6 modes viz, Auto, Auto & Red-eye reduction, Fill-in flash, Slow sync, Flash off, and Red eye fix. It has a range of about 13ft at wide angle and about 9 ft at the telephoto end of the lens. ISO settings range from ISO80 to ISO1600. It has 14 shooting modes along with Program and a full Auto mode. The i85 features ASR (Advanced Shake Reduction) that helps you click clear and sharp pictures; especially in low light situations. The Face Detection feature is capable of detecting up to nine faces in a single frame, and automatically adjusts focus and exposure to capture the best possible image. Additionally, the i85 incorporates a Wise Shot feature that automatically takes two consecutive pictures in rapid succession (one with ASR enabled, and one with the flash) and prompts the user to review both and keep the preferred version of the picture. The movie mode of the i85 lets you capture movies at resolutions of 800x592, 640x480 and 320x240 at 30, 20, or 15 fps. Optical zoom can be used while capturing videos. You can enable the Movie Stabiliser to counter camera shake. The i85 allows you to pause while capturing a video, perform in-camera video editing, capture still images while shooting movies, and time trimming as well. Movies are stored in AVI (MPEG4) format with audio stored in WAV format. The i85 has a whopping 190 MB of internal memory and also supports SD/MMC/MMCPlus/SDHC cards for external storage. PMP Functionality When set to PMP mode, i85 users can listen to MP3 files or view video content on the camera's 3.0-inch LCD screen. The bundled Digimax Converter software converts MPEG, AVI, MOV, WMV and ASF files for viewing on the i85. The software can also convert MP3 and WAV audio files to other formats in a few simple steps. It also allows users to view subtitles, adjust the screen size and crop and stretch the image to fit the screen as desired. The i85 doesn't hold back when it comes to sound either. To listen to videos or music, the i85 features a 2.5mm headphone port as well as stereo speakers World Tour Guide The i85 includes a nifty World Tour Guide function which provides travel information covering 4,000 famous attractions across 30 countries; providing images and brief descriptions. Additional tour guide packs can be downloaded from the Internet, and given the 190 MB of internal memory, you won't have to worry about wasting space for such travel tips. <__PAGETITLE__Features __/PAGETITLE__> ISO Tests

If you lok closely, in the ISO 80 and ISO 100 tests, you can see some chromatic aberration creeping in but noise is at a bare minimum here.

ISO 400 is where the noise starts to become visible. An ISO 400 image like that is of little or no use at all.

This is where things really go bad. The images are not usable at all. Overall, poor ISOperformance beyond the ISO 200 setting. <__PAGETITLE__ISO Tests __/PAGETITLE__> Performance The i85 has a lot going for it in terms of looks, features, as well as functionality. I was particularly impressed by i85's build and looks. It appears and feels like a true lifestyle camera. Although the camera feels sturdy, you don't really get a comfortable grip on the camera like you would get on a regular run-of-the-mill digicam. But we aren't talking about those cams here, are we? Being a multimedia player, the camera has a huge internal memory and also features the nifty World Tour Guide feature. T here is also a text viewer that can display a text document up to 99,999 pages. The menus are easy to navigate (if you've used a Samsung camera before), but the operation is pretty sluggish. Response times are really long after you've pressed a button. However, the controls are well-set -- all in their proper place, buttons have good tactile quality, if that's any consolation. The 8MP CCD delivers average color reproduction. Skin tones turn out good, though not exceptionally well. The images we shot indoors were of decent quality, but a little darker than the scene. All the images had some amount of noise (even at ISO 200), which became more obvious as we went on to higher ISO settings. With ISO 800 and beyond, the images were of no use (check out the sample pictures for more). Images shot in the Macro mode did appear darker, but I could live with that. The ASR mode works pretty well, but takes a lot longer to give you the processed image; meaning greatly increased shot-to-shot times. The LCD freezes or goes blank when shooting in this mode, which can makes it hard to follow your subject. Turning off ASR seems to breathe life into the camera: the shot-to-shot times are surprisingly small, and the camera feels responsive. The "Fun" feature allows you to create a composite photo by saving up to four individual images as one, highlight an image by sharpening the foreground and softening the focus of the background, as well as customize the saved images with photo frames, stickers of various shapes, and cartoon text bubbles. You have a lot of options to choose from, and we're sure you'll find what you'd like. The i-movie mode on the camera offers users SVGA-resolution (800 x 592) MPEG-4 video and advanced editing controls. The quality of the clips is decent enough for spur-of-the-moment videos -- those goofy ones. An interesting feature is the camera's Successive Recording mode, where you can pause and resume filming of video clips without having to save the clips as individual files. Additionally, you can operate the camera's optical zoom while filming, and engage a movie stabilizer to compensate for unwanted camera movement and subject blur. Battery Life Powered by Samsung's proprietary SLB-1137D (3.7v- 1100mAh) rechargeable Li-ion Battery, the i85 lasted for about 100 shots and a few videos that we shot while testing it. Along with that, I also listened to a few MP3s and viewed several text files and used the World Tour guide for about 8-10 minutes, which is pretty good for a compact camera. Still I'd suggest that you get an extra battery pack, so you aren't left with a non-functional camera when you're out and about for longer times. Conclusion The Samsung Digimax i85 is available for around Rs. 14,500 with a 1-year warranty; and for that price what you get is a very capable ultra-compact camera with a variety of high-end features. It's easy to use and has a good number of preset shooting modes that allow for hassle-free photography. Also, it offers a variety of effects that can be applied to images in-camera. Since it has multimedia features as well, it is great for people who travel a lot, including a downloadable World Tour Guide. Overall, the i85 is a decent camera with well endowed features that should entice consumers into purchasing it. It's suitable for those who are looking for a slim digicam and want that something 'extra'. Trust me, this has got more 'extra' than you can handle. <__PAGETITLE__Performance, Battery Life & Conclusion __/PAGETITLE__> Landscape Mode

<__PAGETITLE__Sample Shots (1 of 3) __/PAGETITLE__> 5x Optical zoom

Full zoom (Optical + Digital)

<__PAGETITLE__Sample Shots (2 of 3) __/PAGETITLE__> Action Shot

Macro Mode

<__PAGETITLE__Sample Shots (3 of 3) __/PAGETITLE__>

Follow Techtree on Twitter