I bought this camera about 4 years ago and hardly used it as I assumed it was faulty. I had exactly the same problem as all the other consumers. This Samsung Digimax camera eats batteries both cheap and expensive. I just bought a secondhand Nikon which blows this thing away.

This camera was given to my husband and I as a gift about 2 years ago now (Dec. 2005). This thing has a battery life of zero. From day one, we could only take 6 or 7 photos before the camera died and the batteries had to be replaced (we always use premium alkalines). The recharger that came with it was no help - recharged batteries don't work. My mother-in-law also received the camera then and hers has the same problem. As far as I'm concerned, the picture quality doesn't matter - I can't use this camera without bringing a stack of batteries with me. Totally worthless.

Samsung Digimax 430 - We were going through batteries at an unbelievable rate. We bought 2300 ones and they seemed to solve the problem but then after a few charges we could only take 3 pictures (even without the view screen) before the low battery warning and shutdown.

Don't buy this camera unless you can carry a sackful of batteries with you...

I returned the first Samsung Digimax 430 that I bought because I was convinced it had a fault. I couldn't even go through the manual without the "battery low" text coming up. I didn't expect the batteries supplied to be fully charged, who knows how long they were in the box, but having replaced them with brand new batteries I had the same problem. I reckon I took about 7 to 8 pictures with flash before they expired.
I replaced the camera ~exactly the same problem
This camera is virtually unusable unless you carry a sack full of batteries.