Samsung L830 review

Image quality
Despite the extra time the L830 takes trying to reduce noise at ISO 400 and above, it doesn't help much. Fine details, such as small text, become blurry smears and heavy grain still washes over the pictures. Photos look much better at ISO 200 and below, though fine details still appear slightly soft.

Shooting speed (in seconds)
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)

Typical shot-to-shot time

Time to first shot

Shutter lag (typical)

Samsung S850

2.1

2.1

0.5

Fujifilm FinePix F40fd

2.5

1.1

0.5

Samsung L830

2.8

2.7

0.5

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W55

1.4

1.3

0.5

Canon PowerShot A570 IS

1.8

1.8

0.6

The L830's pictures generally look good enough for emailing and Web sites, but you should be careful when making prints. Pictures shot at ISO 200 or below might look OK at sizes up to A4, though ISO 400 or higher shots shouldn't be blown up beyond 152x102mm (6x4 inches).

Besides noise and softened details, the L830 suffers from significant barrel distortion when shooting at the wide end of the lens. On the bright side, the camera reproduces colors well, and they stay intact up to ISO 800. At the camera's highest sensitivity of ISO 1,600, colours predictably become washed out, though at that level you won't see enough detail for that to really matter.

Conclusion
The Samsung L830 offers a strange mix of photographer-friendly controls, middling performance and disappointing picture quality. Its slow shooting and poor pictures at higher sensitivity settings seriously hurt the camera's flexibility, but its generous set of manual exposure and colour controls give you plenty of ways to tweak your low-ISO shots.

Considering its scant price tag, the L830 offers a lot of camera for experienced, budget-minded photographers. If you ever need to shoot at ISO 400 or higher, though, look for another camera. The older Samsung S850 includes full manual exposure controls including aperture and shutter priority, and it offers slightly better performance and picture quality than the L830.

If you're willing to go for a larger camera, Canon's PowerShot A570 IS is around the same price and has a 4x optical zoom lens as well as manual and aperture and shutter-priority modes.

Meanwhile, Sony's Cyber-shot DSC-W55, also in the same size and price range as the L830, trumps this camera in terms of shot-to-shot times and has an optical viewfinder.

Additional editing by Shannon Doubleday