Samsung's new Digimax V50 is a stylish point-and-shoot with enough muscle and megapixels to snap some great shots. While not as fancy as some high-end cameras, this 8-ounce, 5-megapixel model has quite a few interesting features, including a 2-inch rotating TFT LCD that can either lie flush with the back of the camera or pivot out like a camcorder's LCD.

Taking your first picture is as simple as pressing the power button. The Auto mode handles most lighting conditions, including twilight shots, with aplomb. Automatic flash and auto-focus make it easy to get nice one-off shots and even a set of three continuous shots, perfect for getting an action photo of fast-moving objects like kids on the soccer field.

The included 32MB SD card can hold 35 5-megapixel pictures or one ultrahigh-resolution TIFF image. At the lowest resolution (640 x 480) and quality, the SD card can hold 457 images.

The camera's interface is very simple. There are only six main buttons, including a rocker switch for selecting the macro zoom, timer, flash, and voice memo functions. The center button activates a context-sensitive menu, with which you can change resolution and other camera settings. A top dial sets the various shooting options, including auto, programmable, and scene modes.

The V50's scene modes really come in handy for those who don't like to tinker with manual settings. Just select a scene type-close-up, landscape, or portrait, for example-and the V50 changes all of its speed and flash settings automatically. Busy parents will particularly appreciate the mode designed for photographing children, which sets up the camera to take optimal pictures of fast-moving youngsters.

One noteworthy feature of the V50 is that it supports both Memory Stick and Secure Digital/MultiMediaCard memory cards. This means you can easily shuttle photos from one type of card to the other for sharing or making backups. All you have to do is make sure that both types of cards are inserted and then press the Copy button on the top left side of the camera.

If at any time you want drop an image you don't like, there's a dedicated Delete button right next to the Copy button.

The camera can also take voice memos and short VGA videos with sound. There is a microphone on the front of the camera and a speaker on the top for playback. There is also a low-light mode for shooting in darker rooms. The LCD was perfect in any light, including direct sunlight.

The shots themselves were consistently impressive, especially close-ups. A photo of a watch face came out perfectly, and a long shot of a suburban house had none of the blue cast many digital camera photos suffer from in direct sunlight. In all, we were rewarded with some of highest-quality prints we've seen from a 5-megapixel camera to date.

The V50 doesn't leave pros in a lurch, either. An optional adapter allows you to add zoom or macro lenses over the long integrated 3X zoom Schneider lens.

The V50's weaknesses are minor but noticeable. First, the camera takes about 5 seconds to start up, so you may miss sudden or unpredictable photo opportunities. When you press the Power button, a set of white LEDs flash and the camera powers up while the lens pops out. We would have been pleased if Samsung's engineers had put as much work into an instant-on function as they did in the decorations.

There is also a small plastic flap that covers the USB 2.0 and power ports. Touching this flap lightly causes it to pop out and dangle. We constantly had to reinsert the flap after every use, and it was clear that one false move would rip it from the camera body.

Otherwise, the V50 has both the style and the know-how to be your everyday point-and-shoot. If you want more pixels to play with for larger prints or for cropping your shots, this digicam is a very good value.