Samsung ST65 14.2 Megapixel Ultra Compact Reviews Roundup

not as good as i thought, Heike
Unfortunatly point and shoot is not what you can do with this camera.
More than 50% of the time the pictures are blurry, even if nobody in the pic is moving. its frustrating! a lot of times the lighting is off as well and it looks yellowish... not a good buy, i was hoping for better

not as good as i thought, A Customer
Unfortunatly point and shoot is not what you can do with this camera.
More than 50% of the time the pictures are blurry, even if nobody in the pic is moving. its frustrating! a lot of times the lighting is off as well and it looks yellowish... not a good buy, i was hoping for better

not as good as i thought, Heike B. Teaney
Unfortunatly point and shoot is not what you can do with this camera.
More than 50% of the time the pictures are blurry, even if nobody in the pic is moving. its frustrating! a lot of times the lighting is off as well and it looks yellowish... not a good buy, i was hoping for better

Great little camera, A Customer
Much better than anticipated, a great many hidden features that make the camera near professional in some respects. Well worth the price.

Great little camera, Herbie
Much better than anticipated, a great many hidden features that make the camera near professional in some respects. Well worth the price.

Good value, but grainy LCD screen, no viewfinder, takes MICROSD not SD, Timmercuz
The LCD screen on this camera is very poor quality, and actually made me worried that the pictures would appear as grainy as the subjects appear on the LCD. After transferring the pictures to a PC, the pictures look much sharper (surprisingly so) than they appeared on the LCD. Colors are not picked up as vibrantly as a higher quality camera, and the contrast is slightly off, but it seems to get the job done at this price point.
For a standalone camera with 5x optical zoom you really can't beat the price point, but I would recommend a Canon Digital Elph if you're looking to take quality photos.

Good value, but grainy LCD screen, no viewfinder, takes MICROSD not SD, Timothy Kelly
The LCD screen on this camera is very poor quality, and actually made me worried that the pictures would appear as grainy as the subjects appear on the LCD. After transferring the pictures to a PC, the pictures look much sharper (surprisingly so) than they appeared on the LCD. Colors are not picked up as vibrantly as a higher quality camera, and the contrast is slightly off, but it seems to get the job done at this price point.
For a standalone camera with 5x optical zoom you really can't beat the price point, but I would recommend a Canon Digital Elph if you're looking to take quality photos.

great camera, katielynn
I love this camera the only thing i dont like is that i dont think there are enough flash options

Nice point and shoot, Kc
Just as good as the rest and the price is competitive. Battery doesn't seem to hold as much charge as my older cannon

Not What I Expected, AmazonUser10051975
I purchased this camera as a gift for my roommate's birthday back in June 2011. Being a photo-hobbyist, she really liked the camera...so I figure I'd take a stab at it and bought one for myself (October 2011, at a local Fry's Electronics for $79.99 +tax...Best Buy has this right now at $105.99 +tax). It's a nice upgrade from my Canon Powershot SD1100IS, which was an 8.0 megapixel camera. This is a 13.4 megapixel camera, so it takes pretty clear pictures. I say 13.4 because the dimensions of the pictures taken at the maximum resolution are 4320x3240 (do the math). It is pretty high quality but definitely not 14.2 MP as advertised. Also, the pictures are 96 dpi. I wish it could've been higher.
There are a lot of pre-defined modes for taking pictures, which is great; however, I have not yet discovered a way to manually adjust any of these settings, such as white-balance or apeture. Further, most cameras I've used had buttons or a circular knob on the camera to switch between picture and video (and other features). This camera's change of mode is in the menu, which I find very inconvenient. It does have a pretty cool feature that snaps a picture whenever it detects a smile.
The videos recorded at HD-resolution is okay. Most of my videos so far have a line through them and artifacts throughout. I'm not sure if that's because the ST65 uses mJPG for videos instead of H.264. In any case, the video files I've created are nothing to brag about. If anyone is interested, the video bitrate is between 17k to 23k.
The camera comes with a USB connector that is used for charging the battery. You can charge it while connected to a computer or you can use a wall-outlet adapter that is included. While the camera is plugged into your computer, you can transfer pictures to your computer, but you cannot use it to take pictures or record a movie. I have not tested that functionality while charging with the outlet adapter.
Overall, I'm disappointed in this camera. I usually do a lot of research before purchasing an electronic product. This time, I went by word of mouth. I hope my roommate truly enjoys this camera. It is a lot lower quality than her SLR and the only advantage that I can see is that it's not as clunky as an SLR. I give it THREE stars as it is, at best, an average camera.

Unreliable, A Customer
Bought this camera in May 2011 and the playback button is no longer working just four months later. Samsung's "warranty" process is extremely opaque.
My feeling is just that its a junky camera.

Unreliable, mertyman "merty31"
Bought this camera in May 2011 and the playback button is no longer working just four months later. Samsung's "warranty" process is extremely opaque.
My feeling is just that its a junky camera.

Great Camera for the price, A Customer
A good camera...does everything that I need. Picture quality is very good. Simple to use....battery life is excellent. Would buy again.

Great Camera for the price, Forrest Covin
A good camera...does everything that I need. Picture quality is very good. Simple to use....battery life is excellent. Would buy again.

Cute in size, powerful in functionality, W. Napoles
I've had this camera for less than a week now, so this review is quite premature and, hence, the 4-star rating. I can at least comment on its storage card functionality. When I inserted a Kingston, 4-GB microSDHC card into this camera and powered it up, I got the "Card error" as stated on p. 83 of the user manual. And no matter which button I pressed next, the camera would not navigate away from the screen showing the suggested remedies for the card error. So, I surely believed that it would not allow me to properly format the card. The Kingston, 4-GB microSDHC card was readable and writable on my laptop running Windows 7 Enterprise. I even tried the suggested remedies with no luck before submitting a support e-mail at Samsung.com. They gave to me the same remedies.
The Kingston, 4-GB microSDHC card was formatted in the XFAT, FAT, FAT32 & NTFS formats on my laptop. For each format, the camera still yielded the "Card error" message.
Next, I decided to experiment. I took the Samsung 8-GB microSDHC card out of my HTC smartphone and used it in the camera; the camera properly operated. Based on this, I formatted the Kingston, 4-GB microSDHC card in my smartphone and used it in the camera; the camera now properly operates. I submitted a follow-up support e-mail to Samsung reporting my resolution in hopes that it might help someone else.
Anyway, I have not played with a majority of the features. Navigating the menus was quite simple because of my experience with my Canon Powershot A75. I have taken only a few shots (at the 5 MP resolution) with it so far. I did record a brief, indoor video; it turned out well. I will play with it more and take shots at the higher resolutions and upload them to a PC to post a better-educated review.

Good, Dave R
hey Nice camera with Good reasonable pricing ! also came with everything as if i bought it in store. thanks

Perfect for a compact travel camera, Greg
I have a Nikon SLR and a Canon HD camera for movies, but both are a pain to lug around. I wanted a small, lightweight camera I could keep in my pocket, use mostly for shots of people, but wanted a decent optical zoom and video option. Lastly, I didn't want to invest more than $100. I just got this today and I'm impressed. It looks and feels like a high quality camera, and has an easy interface. It's small, and light weight. The Nikon, Sony, Canon, and Panasonic models were all either heavier or cost much more for the features. The only thing is it requires a micro memory card so I could not use the ones I already have. An 8 gb is only $12, so, no big deal. I'd recommend this camera. It takes good pictures, too. But, the flash is not ideal for dark settings.

A great deal!, A Customer
Let me start by saying that the only reason I didn't rate this as 5 stars is because the LCD display is a little dim and very hard to see in bright sunlight. But the photos come out great, even if you have to guess a bit at what you're aiming at. Indoors is fine, though.
I bought this camera specifically to mount on my mountain bike to make high-def videos. It's small, lightweight and has the tripod mount in the center so the camera will be balanced when I bounce over rocky trails. The video (720p) is very good, but the image stabilization doesn't help on my bike. In fact I think it's better without it and then I just rely on post-processing to stabilize it. But I don't hold that against the camera - it's a pretty shaky ride on a the trails, whether it's mounted on the frame or my helmet. When the video is too shaky to view, I can still grab individual frames (using my video editing software, not included with the camera) and use them as photos - the resolution is high enough to put on the web, but not for printing.
The camera doesn't come with a printed manual. You have to get the manual from the included CD. You can pick one of several dozen languages. It does have a printed quick-start guide to get you going.
The camera records video up to a max of 2GB. The manual says that is about 9 minutes, but I've found it's more like 11-12 minutes. When you reach the limit, it just stops recording and saves what it has.
As for memory cards, the manual says up to 8 GB micro SDHC is guaranteed; I've used a 16 GB card with no problems. In video mode, the total record time left (based on space on the memory card) is displayed at the top. An 8 GB card holds almost 45 mintues of 720p video. The 16 GB card holds double, but the battery is only good for about an hour of video, so you'll need a spare to fill 16 GB.
The battery can be removed from the camera, but only way to charge it is in the camera using the included USB cable. It's not a standard USB cable, so don't lose it!
I have taken many dozen photos with it, exclusively outdoors, and they came out very well. At least I didn't notice any problems with them. The color, contrast and focus were all good.
In summary, I think this camera is a great bargain! It's small and easy to carry, attractive and takes good pictures and video. The only issue I have is that the display isn't bright enough to see well when outside in the sun.

A great deal!, S. Clark
Let me start by saying that the only reason I didn't rate this as 5 stars is because the LCD display is a little dim and very hard to see in bright sunlight. But the photos come out great, even if you have to guess a bit at what you're aiming at. Indoors is fine, though.
I bought this camera specifically to mount on my mountain bike to make high-def videos. It's small, lightweight and has the tripod mount in the center so the camera will be balanced when I bounce over rocky trails. The video (720p) is very good, but the image stabilization doesn't help on my bike. In fact I think it's better without it and then I just rely on post-processing to stabilize it. But I don't hold that against the camera - it's a pretty shaky ride on a the trails, whether it's mounted on the frame or my helmet. When the video is too shaky to view, I can still grab individual frames (using my video editing software, not included with the camera) and use them as photos - the resolution is high enough to put on the web, but not for printing.
The camera doesn't come with a printed manual. You have to get the manual from the included CD. You can pick one of several dozen languages. It does have a printed quick-start guide to get you going.
The camera records video up to a max of 2GB. The manual says that is about 9 minutes, but I've found it's more like 11-12 minutes. When you reach the limit, it just stops recording and saves what it has.
As for memory cards, the manual says up to 8 GB micro SDHC is guaranteed; I've used a 16 GB card with no problems. In video mode, the total record time left (based on space on the memory card) is displayed at the top. An 8 GB card holds almost 45 mintues of 720p video. The 16 GB card holds double, but the battery is only good for about an hour of video, so you'll need a spare to fill 16 GB.
The battery can be removed from the camera, but only way to charge it is in the camera using the included USB cable. It's not a standard USB cable, so don't lose it!
I have taken many dozen photos with it, exclusively outdoors, and they came out very well. At least I didn't notice any problems with them. The color, contrast and focus were all good.
In summary, I think this camera is a great bargain! It's small and easy to carry, attractive and takes good pictures and video. The only issue I have is that the display isn't bright enough to see well when outside in the sun.

FANTASTIC, ScottyM
We actually got this camera as a replacement from Samsung for the SL605 model that had power issues, so they sent us this one and let me just say it's awesome, the pictures are very clear and life like and the 720p HD video is great as well, when we shot the first video and then watched it back, we couldn't believe the detail it had. This camera has more features than some of the other brands in it's price range, it is also lightweight which makes it easy to travel with. There's still some features we haven't tried yet but eventually we will. I would definately reccommend it to anyone who want's a great camera with a lot of features for a great price.