Top 10 Samsung Digimax S730 Digital Camera Questions & Answers

I bought a pack of Kodak rechargeable batteries at Walmart for $15.00 9 months ago and they are still going stron - they go for about 4-5 hours without needing to be recharge, not to mention 4 come in the pack and the camera only takes 2 so I always have 2 extra ones ready.  I love this camera and use it non-stop on a regular basis (I took over 200 pictures yesterday at my daughter's soccer game) - get the rechareables and I think you will be happy.

I own a Samsung S730, i downloaded all the drivers on Vista Home, I tried formatting the SD Card but it says CARD LOCKED, and it isnt. Any solutions

i am having the exact problem as you are having have you figured anything out? Thanks!

Hi, there are many reasons why a camera may produce less then sharp pictures.

1) Dirty, oily or damaged lens: Check for dust and fingerprints.
Clean lenses with extreme caution, using dry lens paper.
Use only minimal pressure and gently wipe from the center
outwards, NEVER in circles.

If the lens is really dirty, ask a professional photo dealer to
clean it for you as a free courtesy.

2) Check to see if the auto-focus is working correctly, this could
be an electronic or mechanical problem requiring servicing.
Focus the camera on sharp image at various distances,
to see if it responds by moving the lens.

3) Can you focus the camera manually?

4) Can you focus by moving the camera back and forth
in regards to the object of interest?

5) Is the auto-focus feature somehow disabled in the menus ?

6) Are the batteries up to snuff, they may be strong enough to
turn on the camera, but too weak to move the focus motor.

7) Is the subject you are trying to focus on out of the
focus range of the lens: i.e. too close ?

8) Is the subject you are focusing on too bland, with insufficient
detail to activate and lock the auto-focus.

9) Do you have enough light for the auto-focus to operate.

10) Does the flash unit project an red pattern to help with
focusing.

11) Are you mistaking sharpness (focus) for depth of field.
In low light conditions, the lens iris opens wide, just
like your eye, to let more light in.

This results in a loss of focussed depth of field. This
means that focusing becomes much more sensitive
and critical, such that (when) the main subject is in focus,
everything behind and in front of the subject is not.

This is a theoretical limitation of all optical lenses:
The greater the focal length and the greater the aperture,
the shorter the depth of field.

This can actually be very beneficial when shooting a
portrait: Focus on the eyebrows, blur the background,

or it can be very detrimental: When trying to magnify
a butterfly on a tulip in low light conditions, getting
everything in focus is impossible.

12) Are you mistaking motion blur with lack of focus,
due to slow shutter speeds.

13) Are you shooting in very low light conditions,
causing the picture to become more noisy,
due to the way the digital camera sensor works.

14) I you come up empty on all these suggestions,
you probably have a defective camera and it is
warranty time:

a) Defective electronics
b) Defective auto-focus mechanism
c) Defective lens, loose internal elements
d) Detached sensor chip
.... etc

Try to isolate the problem. Try to manually and
automatically focus on a wide range of subjects,
at various distances, in bright daylight conditions.

If you are still unable to focus the camera,
it is probably defective and requires replacement
or servicing

BTW
Quick review of the internet, indicates that
this particular model is notorious for high battery drain
and battery connection problems. This may be the cause
of poor auto focus as indicated above.

Also this camera has insufficient internal memory, and
and an add-on memory card is required. It is possible
that without the memory card, the camera is defaulting
to a very low pixel resolution, in order to save memory
space, thus creating the appearance of poor focus.

The nominal resolution of the camera = 7.2 Mega Pixels
is respectable for such a low cost camera, but the
reliability reviews are not good.

Martin

I was getting a white screen every time I put the power on and used the suggestion by Fionn - squeezing the camera around the screen and it worked like a charm.
Please try it also

IT WORKS!!!!! find a power supply for something else, around 5v, i used one from an fusic phone. batteries out, plug it in, power on, lens pops out, just a couple of seconds. then unplug, batteries back in and thats it. i just did this 30 sec ago. it works!!!!

http://www.samsungcamera.com/customer/download/cus_down_main.asp

you can download link from here i have also send a request to samsung center to update this s730 camera link on their request and i get positive results from their end

The three beeps mean that the lens motor is unable to extend the lens assembly.
This could be due to a low battery situation, but the most likely cause is the lens drive train stuck or jammed. You'll find generic instructions on solving some cases of jamming here.
http://camerarepair.blogspot.com/2007/12/fixing-lens-error-on-digital-camera.html

Unfortunately, more serious cases (due to falls, shocks, and most of all, the camera being turned on while some resistance prevents the lens from extending: e.g., if the camera accidentally turns on while in a pocket) require the repair shop.

�� When the menu is displayed on the LCD monitor,
pressing the LEFT button makes the cursor shift to
the left tab.
�� When the menu is not displayed on the LCD
monitor, the LEFT button operates as the FLASH
( ) button.
�� Selecting the flash mode
1. Rotate the MODE DIAL to select a RECORDING mode with the exception of
Movie clip mode.
2. Press the Flash button until the desired flash mode indicator displays on the
LCD monitor.
3. A flash mode indicator will be displayed on the LCD monitor.
Use the correct flash to suit the environment.

I couldn't find an actual .pdf download for the manual, and strangely samsung seems to have removed the S730 from their download pages. But I did find an online version that you can scroll through. Its the 98 page manual that covers both the S630/S730 cameras. The link is posted below. Hope this helps!
http://www.scribd.com/doc/15077044/Samsung-Camera-S630-S730-User-Manual