The E-Gear reviewed Samsung SC-HMX20C HD camcorder.
I’ve used a lot of Samsung cameras and camcorders over the years, and this is easily the most satisfying of the lot. Its operation is smooth and intuitive, and the video quality looks smashing on an HDTV.
The HMX20C is a medium-sized camcorder that records full 1920 x 1080 HDTV resolution in H.264 (MPEG4) format onto either the built-in memory (8GB) or a removable SD memory card. The bullet-shape design and glossy black shell give it a sleek, fashionable appearance. The large 2.7-inch widescreen LCD display looks bright and sharp, which it better because there’s no optical viewer to let you skip the LCD. The button placement and controls have all been placed to make one-handed operation easier, while the swiveling grip makes it easy to hold the camera comfortably when shooting from different angles.
I especially like the inclusion of the Mode button for toggling between video, photo and playback rather than the mode dials found on nearly every other camcorder on the market. The 10X optical zoom is also quick and responsive. One of the things that struck me most about this vidcam was how user-friendly the menu system is. This is an area that Samsung had found challenging over past years, but the company appears to have put a lot of careful thought into making every feature easy to find and understand, while making the on-screen options attractive too. People don’t tend to use their camcorders as often as still cameras, so they shouldn’t have to memorize complicated menu trees in order to get to the functions they want.
All the functions are accessed via the touchscreen LCD. Some people may worry about getting the screen too smudgy from finger tapping, but after years of using touchscreen devices, I’m not bothered by that. Just keep the kids’ messy fingers off it.Video quality impressed me as much as build quality. Some outside footage of my daughter on her new skateboard showed very minimal artifacts and noise while showing lots of detail and vibrant colors. A recording of a viola music recital looked equally sharp, allowing me to see textures in fabrics and facial details. Audio picked up from the built-in stereo mics also sounded good, which will encourage me to replay my daughter’s recital frequently.
Low-light shooting was fair-to-good, but there is no external light, so really dark scenes did show some graininess. The electronic image stabilizer performed about average for cameras in this price range. It did a fine job when zoomed out, but fully zoomed shots still showed camera shake with the stabilizer engaged. The 8GB memory will give you a little more than an hour at top quality.You can select from several resolutions, including 1080p or 1080i (at 30 or 60 frames per second) and 480p. Everything looked great on my 50-inch Hitachi plasma.
The camcorder can also take pretty decent still digital photos up to 3264 x 2448 resolution. Archiving your movies to a PC will eat up a lot of hard drive space (get an external backup) or you can back it up to a Blu-ray disc. PC connection is via USB. The files will play on a PS3. The camera ships with a copy of Cyberlink DVD Suite, battery charger and a dock to connect your camcorder via HDMI or component to an HDTV.
To be continued...
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