Scene Modes
The Samsung i5 has a good selection of scene modes to satisfy most every shooting situation. The only mode that Samsung neglected, and one that I have never seen left out of a camera, is a "sport" mode. A sports mode would force the camera to use a higher shutter speed in order to help "freeze" faster action. Since the i5 lacks a sports mode or any way to manually increase the shutter speed the i5 is probably not the camera to get if you take a lot of sports pictures.

Despite the lack of a sports mode, the i5 does feature a lot of useful scene modes. Scene modes are a convenient way of setting up the camera to take a particular style shot. Scene modes are actually just functions of the camera that have been preset based on the scene category. For example, setting the camera to Close-up mode will automatically turn-on the macro feature and turn off the flash, setting the scene mode to Landscape will set a smaller aperture to increase depth-of-field while also turning off the flash. In total there are 11 scene modes built-in the Samsung i5:

• Night
• Portrait
• Children
• Landscape
• Close-up
• Text
• Sunset
• Dawn
• Backlight
• Fireworks
• Beach & Snow

You'll notice a Text mode listed above. This mode is used when taking pictures of a page of text that you can later convert to editable text within your computer. Samsung provides software that will read your graphic containing text and convert it for use in your favorite word processor.

Macro Mode
The Samsung i5 offers an excellent macro mode, actually three macro modes. The Auto Macro Mode works automatically and allows the camera to focus as close as 2" (5 cm) from the subject when the camera is at wide angle or as close as 20" in the telephoto position. If you switch the camera to Super Macro Mode the camera can then focus on subjects as close as 0.39" from the lens. Super Macro Mode is superb at capturing the finest details from subjects, even small ones such as coins, jewelry, stamps, etc,. The standard Macro Mode is similar to Auto Macro Mode in that the camera can focus as close as 2" from the lens. Unlike the Auto Macro mode which automatically focuses from 2" to infinity, the standard Macro Mode focuses from 2" to 20". While on the same subject, the Super Macro Mode is used within the .39" to 2" range.

• Auto Macro Mode: 2" to Infinity (Wide Angle) / 20" to Infinity (Telephoto)
• Macro Mode: 2" to 20" (Wide Angle) / 10" to 20" (Telephoto)
• Super Macro Mode: .39" to 2" (Wide Angle Only)

Manual Overrides
The Samsung i5 allows you to set the ISO and white balance manually, as well as gives access to exposure compensation (+/- 2 EV). Access to these manual overrides is provided by the +/- (delete) button to the bottom left of the navigation pad. Pressing this button while in camera mode allows you to access ISO, Exposure Compensation, and White Balance. If the camera is set to NIGHT mode this button then provides access to the slow shutter setting, allowing you to adjust the shutter speed from 1 second down to as slow as 16 seconds. In playback mode, this same button is used to delete images.

Menu System
The on-screen menu system found on all digital cameras is designed to help the user navigate and change the settings of their camera. Through the menu system users can adjust resolution, image quality, change modes, set date & time and other system settings, as well as access overrides such as ISO, exposure settings, and white balance. Every digital camera manufacturer seems to offer a different navigation "flow" but the one Samsung chose for the i5 was very intuitive. While the majority of controls and settings were easy to find I did have a problem during the first day of operation (before reading the manual). I couldn't figure out how to change ISO, white balance, shutter speed, and exposure settings. Once I read the manual and realized what I was in the wrong mode navigation became a breeze. It's amazing what reading the manual will do.

Basic on-screen navigation is layed out horizontally. Users press left or right (flash icon / self time icon) on the navigation pad to move through the menus and the up/down (microphone / macro) buttons along with the Menu/OK button to select options within the menu. Samsung also includes a separate button marked "M" (not shown in this photo) for quick access to many of the settings.

Special Effects and Frames
The Samsung i5 allows the user to shoot photographs with different tints including sepia (old-fashion), b/w, blue, red, and green. Along with these color modes the i5 features frame overlays that allow the user to place a queens crown on their subject or stars for the star in their life. I have examples of these frames in the photo gallery section. Another unique feature is the highlight feature which allows you to position dotted lines ,that appear on the LCD, around your subject. This area will be captured in-focus, while the camera softly blurs everything outside of this highlighted zone.