Samsung ST95 review

Effects such as Soft Focus, Fish Eye and Half Tone Dot (to give a newsprint-style effect) can be applied immediately in the live preview or later when reviewing photos. Various other editing options are available for those who don’t want to use image-editing software on their PC.

Otherwise, the ST95 is a typical budget camera. Performance was respectable, taking three seconds from switching on to image capture and 2.1 seconds on average between shots. Full-power flash shots were slow at over 10 seconds apart, though, and the 0.6fps continuous mode isn’t really worth delving into the menu for.

Other subject matter was more forgiving, but even in moderately subdued lighting, skin tones were dominated by noise – Click on this image to enlarge it

Photo quality in bright light was good but not excellent, with soft focus towards the corners of wide-angle shots and a slightly smudged appearance to fine details. The camera picked sensible settings in low light, but with no optical stabilisation leading to high ISO speeds and a massive 16-megapixel sensor, these shots were often spoiled by noise. Noise reduction salvaged some photos but skin tones were less forgiving. It’s a common problem among budget compact cameras, but the ST95 was well below average for low-light image quality.

Videos were recorded at 720p, but while the optical zoom remained active while shooting, focus became fixed. Videos displayed the same tendency towards smudged details in bright light and excessive noise in low light.

We can take or leave the ST95’s touchscreen, and on the basis of its image quality – especially compared to the fantastic Canon Ixus 115 HS – we’ll definitely leave it.