Powered by two common AA alkaline batteries, the S85 allows users to always be able to find a replaceable power source wherever they go, without having to worry about forgetting a battery charger at home. The S85 features Samsung's SHD lens and brings a 5x optical zoom (35mm film equivalent: 38 190mm) right to shooters' fingertips. With a focus range that starts at 1 centimeter, the S85 also allows users to experiment with macro photography and get close up with subjects, such as flowers, and capture crisp, clear images with super detail. For fast action photography, the S85 offers a maximum shutter speed of 1/2,000 second as well as a motion capture feature that allows users to take up to seven pictures a second.

With Samsung's proprietary ASR (Advanced Shake Reduction) image stabilization system and Wise Shot technology, the S85 gives users the ability to minimize the effects of hand shake and ensure that the best shots are captured even in dimly lit conditions. Wise Shot automatically takes two consecutive pictures in rapid succession one with ASR image stabilization enabled, and one with the flash and prompts the user to review both and keep the preferred version of the picture. Furthermore, the S85's Face Detection technology also makes taking pictures of family and friends a snap. Samsung's Face Detection feature detects up to nine faces and automatically adjusts focus and exposure to ensure better composition and image quality.

By using the S85's 2.5 inch LCD screen, users can frame their subjects and can review, edit, and customize their images right on the camera. A special effects "E" button gives users instant access to a host of creative controls, including options for resizing and rotating images, adjusting brightness, contrast, and saturation levels, fixing red eye, and manipulating color such as saving captured images as B and W, Sepia, Red, Blue, Green, and Negative. The S85's "Fun" feature also allows users to take their creativity a step further. This unique feature allows shooters to create a composite photo by saving up to four individual images as one, highlight an image by sharpening the foreground and softening the focus of the background, as well as customize their saved images with photo frames, stickers of various shapes, and cartoon text bubbles. All images can be saved to the 20MB of internal memory or to an external SDHC/SD card with a guaranteed maximum of 4GB.

With 14 scene modes to choose from, including Night, Portrait, Children, Landscape, Close Up, Text, Sunset, Dawn, Backlight, Fireworks, Beach and Snow, Cafe, Food, and Self Shot, shooters can rest assured that they'll be able to effortlessly adjust the camera and capture the best image possible in any setting.

The S85 also boasts a high resolution movie mode, with the ability to record at VGA resolution (640 x 480) at a maximum frame rate of 30 frames per second (fps). Additionally, shooters can use the camera's 5x optical zoom while recording video and with Samsung's Successive Recording mode, can pause, and then resume filming without having to save the clips as individual files.