Review: Samsung Epic 4G
Camera
The camera on the Samsung Epic 4G springs to life quickly, in about a couple of seconds, when you hold down the button on the side of the phone. The Epic 4G lets you focus by holding down the camera button half way, or you can tap on screen where you'd like the camera to focus. After you shoot, you'll get to review the image, but getting back to the camera again can be tricky. Sometimes pressing the camera button returns you to the live viewfinder; sometimes you have to press the Back button. Sometimes I would press the camera button to reactivate the camera, only to have the shutter fire off another shot right away.
There are loads of camera options on board. The phone has 10 shooting modes, including a beauty mode that blurs skin tones to remove blemishes, a vintage mode, a cartoon filter and a strange Add Me mode that lets you shoot a background image first, then add a subject to the foreground in a second shot. I couldn't get the hang of it in my test period, but it seemed intriguing. There are also more than a dozen scene modes, for indoor shooting, sunset shots, firework pictures and more. Besides these modes, you get control over white balance, ISO sensitivity, metering, and a bunch of other minor settings.
Image Gallery
The Samsung Epic 4G uses the standard Android 2.1 photo gallery, and it looks great on this phone. The gallery groups photos into small, 3D piles by date or folder, and then you can tap the pile for a grid view. You can view pics in a slideshow, or view them individually. There aren't many editing options. You can crop or rotate pics, but that's all.
There are plenty of ways to distribute your pics from the gallery. You can upload images to sites like Picasa or Facebook. You can send pics as e-mail or MMS messages, or you can send them to a desktop using Bluetooth. You can even use Samsung's AllShare app to send pics to a compatible TV or media server.
Hands-On with Samsung's Galaxy S Phones for the US
Samsung Epic 4G (Galaxy S)
