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For those who say all small digital cameras are the same I can say they are certainly not. Touchscreen is just coming in to the range, this is not one of those, the mavority of others use a menuing system operated by a five position wheel not this camera.

First the dimensions it is 10.5x6.5x4cm the last dimension the width is to the front of the lens this can increase by 3.5 when fully zoomed and the unit weights around 220grams. It is a black beauty.

This is a 5x optical zoom offering and can take 10.1 megapixel images. Quite surprisingly the flash is of the pop up variety so be careful where you put your fingers. This has the effect of increasing the distance from the lens to more than 3cm.

See also: Digital Cameras

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On top of the camera apart from the area where the flash pops from are the on/off button and the shutter release. There is also an eight position wheel but to begin with just leave it on 'Auto' you will not be disappointed. Neither side has any controls and the rear only has the insertion point for the solid battery and an SD/MMC card.

This leaves the back that is dominated by a huge 5.5x4cm TFT display to the right of this is the telephoto/wide angle rocker and the anchor point for the wrist strap. There are seven touch buttons below the TFT screen and six to the right of it. Only the last one has any indication of what it does with the word 'back' beside it. There is only one other button this one is small and round with a > on it.

Pages four to twelve in this seven language user manual do nothing to help in the explanation of what the smart buttons do. I am not denying that there is a perfectly good PDF manual on the CD-ROM but to read this you would need a PC and there is no reason today why any digital camera owner need own a PC. You can print direct to a printer either using a cable or removing a card and printing using any of a vast range of printers either A5 or A4 that print images.

I think what made it worst was the excellent single language manual I had with the i70 I had reviewed just previously. As part of my tests I never like to look at a manual until I have fathomed out how to do all the basic things like changing resolution and compression as well as selecting the various modes. It took a lot of luck for me to manage this and I admit I stumbled on the answer by accident. When I read the proper manual all was clear. I couple of extra pages to cover the smart buttons was all it would have needed to get you started. Having this layout gives you far options when you venture beyond the world of 'Auto'.

I was more than happy with all the images I took both in daylight and using flash once I found how to centre the colour that had been set to what is called 'warm' by the last reviewer. Before this it was impossible to get a white that did not look cream.

No card or case is supplied - sorry no space for my normal rant about this - a 512MB card should take around 100 images at the 10MP resolution using super fine compression right down to the 1MP using the most compressed normal mode where you should get around 1500 images. The other modes are 9MP, 7MP, 7MP wide, 5MP,and 3MP. As a movie camera it can take 640x480 and 320x240 at either 30 or 15FPS. The same card would take from 26 to 120 minutes of movie. The battery should recharge in around 150 minutes while switched off.

The camera takes great images, if you can ignore the terrible User Manual then there is little to dislike. In fact the link below will tell you more than the manual.

Doing my Internet searches found the Samsung NV11 at a best price of £169.95 including delivery from the first link below.

http://www.purelygadgets.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=6851&wysiwyg=9

http://www.samsungcamera.com/uk/product/pro_view.asp?prol_uid=2823&cat_uid=75