Samsung Digimax V4

There's nothing unique or exceptional about the Samsung Digimax V4. But it's a good-looking, well-designed, reasonably priced 4.0-megapixel compact camera.

The Digimax V4's muted-gray plastic body has a curved ridge in front and raised bumps on the back for a sure grip. The camera can be used one-handed, but with some buttons placed to the left of the LCD, you'll need both hands to adjust all the settings. It doesn't have a focusable diopter in the optical viewfinder; the power switch on top of the camera can easily be pressed by accident, and you must hit the review button to return to shooting mode instead of pressing the shutter halfway. Although this probably won't matter to most people, the Digimax V4 can operate on nine different battery types, and the menus can be displayed in 15 languages.

The Digimax V4 works equally well as a point-and-shoot camera or in full manual, aperture, or shutter priority mode. The only program modes are portrait and night scene, however. A built-in illuminator helps focus, and the wireless remote is convenient for shooting self-portraits. Navigating menus is simple and straightforward, aided by the color-coded tabs for Program, Setup, and MyCAM. MyCAM lets you save three groups of settings.

Performance was not the Digimax V4's strong suit; its boot and recycle times were slow for a 4-megapixel camera. Image quality is very good, though. Our daylight test shot had excellent exposure and very good color, though depth of field was limited. Our flash shot was sharp and nicely illuminated, with accurate colors.

If you eschew flashy technology in favor of solid dependability at a fair price, you'll like this camera.