Great Bargain

Author's Rating:

Pros: Lots of great features, lightweight, compact, inexpensive.

Cons: Scene modes need some work.

The Bottom Line: 
This is a great camera for anyone who wants something that won't break the bank, but still takes great photos.

Author's Review
I have to say I was pleasantly surprised by the Samsung L100.  I found it while on vacation when I was looking for an inexpensive replacement for a different camera that had broken.  I'm glad I did, for a compact point and shoot this camera has a lot of great features.  

Probably the best feature that this camera has is a Manual mode, for that small segment of people who still know how to use a camera more than just pointing it at something and pressing the button.  In the manual mode are options to change the ISO (80 to 1600), Resolution, Image Quality, White Balance, Metering, Auto-focus area (including Face Detection option), Drive, Aperture, and Shutter Speed (8s to 1/1500s).  Having a manual mode on an inexpensive compact like this is getting to be very rare, but is very useful for difficult shooting situations, or any occasion when you are not satisfied with the results on the Auto setting.
There is also a Program (P) mode for people who don't want to adjust all the options every time they take a picture.  This allows you to set certain options the way you want (such as the ISO for example), while anything you don't put on a specific setting will remain automatic.  The P mode has all of the same options as the above except for the Aperture and Shutter settings.  It does allow to adjust the exposure +/- 2EV in 1/3 EV steps.  Both the P and the Manual mode have 5 flash options, including red-eye and slow synch.

One of the most unique options that the camera has is 4 self timer modes; 10 seconds, 2 seconds, 10 seconds and 2 seconds after that, and 6 seconds after movement has stopped.  That last one is a personal favorite as it makes it easier to take photos in low light without blurriness, and not a feature that is normally seen.

Other features include color options (Black & White, Sepia, Red, Green, Blue, Negative, and a custom color), and in camera editing such as resizing, rotating, color and saturation options and red-eye fix.

In addition to Manual, P, and Auto modes there are also video mode, with sound; Portrait Mode; a help guide mode, and Scene, with 9 different presents including night scene, sunset, fireworks, and others.

One of the drawbacks about the scene mode is that the presets are not adjustable and sometimes don't look that great.  For example in the night mode the pictures are too bright and there is no way to adjust the exposure within that preset.  This is forgivable though, since one can always use the manual mode.

The only other criticism I have is that sometimes the pictures appear a bit grainy.  This is only really an issue though if you are using a faster IS0, zooming in far with the digital zoom, or cropping the photo heavily.