The Menu structure of the ES30 camera

The ES30 camera is a modern automatic point and shoot compact digital camera boasting a 12.2 Megapixels sensor. It is dropping down in price and it is easily affordable. To get the most out of it, you have to be familiar with this camera, especially its menu structure (obtained by pressing MENU button at the back) allowing you to access all of its advanced features.

1. Mode
• Smart Auto
• Program
• DIS
• Scene
1. Beauty Shot
2. Frame Guide
3. Night
4. Portrait
5. Children
6. Landscape
7. Closeup
8. Text
9. Sunset
10. Dawn
11. Backlight
12. Fireworks
13. Beach & Snow
• Movie
2. Shooting
• Photo Size
The following sizes are available:
1. 12M - 4000 X 3000, appropriate for A1-sized ( about 23.33 x 33.1 in. ) prints
2. 10M - 3984 X 2656, appropriate for A1-sized ( about 16.5x.33 x 23.3 in. ) prints (3:2 ratio).
3. 9M - 3968 X 2232, appropriate for display on HD TV or A2-sized ( about 16.5x23.33 x 23.3 in. ) prints (16:9 ratio).
4. 8M - 3264 X 2448, appropriate for A3-sized (about 11.7x 16.5 in.) prints.
5. 5M - 3264 X 2448, appropriate for A4-sized (about 8.3x 11.7 in.) prints.
6. 3M - 2048 X 1536, appropriate for A5-sized (about 5.8x 8.3 in.) prints.
7. 1M - 1024 X 768, appropriate for email attachment.
Take care that you have sufficient memory left available for photographing when choosing the higher resolutions.
• Quality
SF (Super fine),F(Fine), and n(Normal).
• EV
Setting may be set from -2, to +2. Normal value is 0.
• ISO
The following iso settings are available: auto, 80. 100,200,400,600 and 1600.
• White Balance
AVailable: Auto, Day;light, Cloudy, Fluorescent_H,Fluorescent_L, Tungsten, Custom Set.
• Face Detection
• Focus Area
The following appears in Program Mode:
• Metering
• Photo Style Selector
Convenient built in special effects (N, S, V, F, R, CO, CA, CL)
1. normal
2. soft style
3. vivid style
4. forest style
5. retro style
6. cool style
7. classic style
8. negative style
9. create own style by adjusting RGB values
To obtain Black and white photo effects, select CL (classic). See also the post: Who said you cannot take Black and White photos
• Image Adjust
• ACB
1. On
2. Off
• Drive
Please view our post on continuous or burst mode shooting: http://me-and-my-samsung-es30.blogspot.com/2011/04/burst-or-continuous-shooting-mode-in.html Dont forget that this works in program mode.
• Voice
1. Off - Turn off voice recording
2. Memo - Set the voice memo feature
3. Record - Enable voice recording
3. Sound
• Volume
• Start Sound
• Shutter Sound
• Beep Sound
• AF Sound
4. Display
• Function Descrip...
• Start Image
• Display Brightness
• Quick View
• Power Save
5. Settings
• Format
Format the SD storage card. Be careful with this setting!
• Reset
Allows reset to factory settings or not: Choices: Yes, No
• Language
Sets the menu language, up to 36 selections!
• Time Zone
• Date/Time Set
Sets date and time. Allows user to set the individual fields, month, day, year, hour and minute.
• Date Type
Offers the following date formats: YYYY/MM/DD, MM/DD/YYYY, DD/MM/YYYY
• File No.
Affects file numbering, with the following choices: Reset, Series
• Imprint
Adds date|time information to the photo. Choices: Off, date, date & time
• Auto Power Off
The following choices are available (Off, 1 min, 3 min, 5 min, 10 min). Saves batter power by shutting down if any controls including the shutter are not activated.
• AF Lamp
1. Off
2. On
• Video Out
1. NTSC
2. PAL
• USB
1. Auto
2. Computer
3. Printer
• Battery Type
1. Alkaline
2. NI-MH

We wonder why Samsung did not offer Shutter|Aperture priority settings. If they did, the camera would appeal to even professional cameras as an auxiliary camera.


We will post more and illustrative photos to go with it in the future if we have the time.

Are you spending too much on batteries?

How often do you use your ES30 camera? Dont go overboard on buying non-rechargeable lithium high capacity batteries. They are quite expensive, though the camera can take a large number of shots before they lose charge. Instead, it might be better to buy high capacity NiMH batteries like the Sanyo Eneloop batteries. Buy four, using two as spare.And turn off the camera if you consciously decide not to shoot for long periods of time. Remove batteries from camera when not in use. Corroded battery terminals due to leaking batteries are the number one source of unusable electronic equipment.

For more information on batteries , click on http://batterydata.com/.

Night photo capabilties of ES30

Here is one photo from my publicly accessible Baguio album

If there is something I could learn from this, it is that we have to use a tripod when doing low light photographic work!

Accidental formatting of SD card.

Nuts, I accidentally formatted my sd card of my
Samsung ES30 camera. The highlighting of choices is somewhat perplexing, instead of one bright/dark current choice, the camera displays two contrasting Yes and No choices leading to my error.

Gone are the photos of my Baguio quick vacation! Luckily my Nokia C3 though only a 2Meg pixel camera has some of the vacation photos. I will upload them soonest, lest accidents are waiting to happen!

The Samsung ES30 Digital Camera

I have become much more comfortable with the Canon Powershot A540 camera. The controls are natural and since Canon is a camera manufacturer for a long time, the camera is well designed. For instance, you only need to rotate a knob to select different shooting modes, from movie making, manual, TV, programmed, Automatic , Night scenes, etc. It has an auxiliary manual viewfinder atop the lens.

Not so with the Samasung ES 30. Everything must be done in the viewing screen, except for the shutter. This should appeal for first time camera users as they dont have to deal with the legacy camera baggage.

Yet by spending a little time each day with the ES30 you can maximize your satisfaction with this modern camera from Samsung.

Here are the specs of the ES30 camera(p. 11 of Quickstart manual:

Maximum Resolution	12.2 Effective , Megapixels
Viewing Display Screen	3.0" diagonal, TFT LCD
Lens	4.9-24.5mm 1:3.5-5.9 27 mm
	fstop: F3.5(W) - F5.9 (T)
Power supply	2 x AA NiMH Battery, Rechargeable
Dimensions	96. x 61.5 x 23.4 mm
Weight	141 g (without battery and memory card)
Storage	2Gbytes (SD card), upto 8Gbytes(SDHC card)
Price	5000 Pesos at Picture city.

More published data later!


Here is a published picture of the ES30 camera from samsung.com:

Welcome to my new blog!

Another blog???!!! Why not? I have already the following blogs:

1. Digital Exploration
2. Doc Ernie's Adventures in the Web
3. The Aquino Presidency:2010-2016
4. Life, Research, Education
5. Engineering Problems and Solutions Reviewer
   
6. Me and My Nokia C3
7. Science, Technology and Society
8. Free Software Explorations
9. Extreme Online Solvers
10. Me and My Ipad

The name of this blog? Me and My Samsung ES30.

That makes an exact dozen blogs, as of january 12, 2011.

Stay tuned please!

Our blog will discuss topics involving the Samsung ES30 camera.