http://www.tweaknews.net/reviews/samsung_hd_camcorder_sc-hmx20c/

PRODUCT INTRODUCTION

With summer quickly approaching, North America is slowly thawing, the snow is going away, the grass is growing and the outdoor season is going into full swing. With outdoor activities and the mainstreaming of consumer HD camcorders and TV in the past two or so years, there is no longer an excuse to get some great HD family or outdoor footage to add to your memory vault.

With HD camcorders getting more popular, the older tape and DVD media is slowing greatly as the consumer which is more familiar with an iPod rather than a tape player flocks to the option that has solid state memory. Solid state memory and consumer HD camcorders go together like peanut butter and jelly and enabled the user to not only capture great HD footage, but easily upload it to their computer for editing, emailing or archiving.

Today I review SC-HMX20C which is the second generation in Samsung's HD camcorder lineup which is a newer, more featured-packed version of the SC-HMX10A which I reviewed last year HERE. Not only is the resolution bumped up from 720p to a Full HD 1080p, it also incorporates such new features as a flash for photos, an automatic lens cover and has its internal memory upgraded from 4Gb to 8Gb.

The SC-HMX10A itself was a great camcorder that was easy to use, let's see if the better second generation's SC-HMX20C adds to an already excellent HD recording experience.

PRODUCT SPECIFICATIONS & FEATURES

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PRODUCT COMPOSITION

Let's take a look at what is included with this new HD camcorder. Samsung lately has been excellent with keep their product hardware kit topped up and missing very little.

First out is your usual user's manual (paper and on CD) along with the warranty and helpline registration paperwork. But also included is a full version of DVD Suite from

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Cyberlink. This essentially allows you to burn your solid state recorded content onto a DVD for archiving or viewing.

I do have to say, the hardware kit is pretty complete with some added additions that even I thought would not be included.

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What comes included is:

- Docking Cradle- USB Data Cable - Soft Camera Case- Power Adapter- Remote Control w/ Batteries- Standard Analog Video Patch Cable- HD Component Patch Cables- Lithium-Ion Battery (850mAh)

 

And at last you have your Full HD camcorder. Even though the capabilities have been increased, the overall size has not and the weight is still about a pound including the battery and the memory card. Again, the piano gloss finish, which adorned the previous model, shows dust and fingerprints in higher ambient light conditions as shown above. In normal lighting, it isn't as bad. Hopefully the gloss black will become unpopular soon so this type of material is no longer used. It's not bad on products such as TVs or Blu-Ray player which see minimal handling, but with camcorders which get man-handled every time you use it, it can get a little grungy

PRODUCT PICTORIAL & WALKTHROUGH

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Let's take a walk around the camcorder and point out what you, the potential buyer, should know about your upcoming purchase.

Starting off at the front, thankfully the lens shutter cover is now completely automatic and there is no longer the need to manually open it every time you want to take a photo or record some HD footage. This comes in handy and you won't be constantly putting the lens cap on and off, but still will offer perfect protection from dust and debris. You will also note the flip up flash that is used during taking photos if the light conditions are not ideal. The camera detects lower light conditions and will automatically open the flash when needed though you will have to manually close it when you are finished. Still, it is a nice feature and aids in taking some pretty decent photos.

The HD lens has a 6.4 Megapixel CMOS sensor capable of an 8 megapixel photo, has 10x optical and 100x digital zoom capability. with the electronic stability initialized, you can

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still zoom out to quite a distance before then camera shake will become a little hard to watch. Of course a tripod would help with that as well.

At first glance most will see a rather simple photo with the usual zoom control and the photo capture button along with an easy to use function mode change button. One thing to note is that mode changes take a bit of time seeing they don't allow you to quickly skip over ones you don't want to initialize. This supposedly has been fixed with a firmware upgrade to allow for quicker toggling between functions without waiting for each to load completely.

The right side of the unit has an adjustable hand strap and a hidden, yet useful function.

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The swivel hand-grip allows for comfortable video recording from lower vantage point and allows you to record at lower levels without getting on your knees or crouching. 

Moving around to the rear, you have your usual power, record and mode button along with a LED mode indicator. Very simple and intuitive to even a camcorder novice. Show them once and they will remember easily.

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Opening the back door exposes where you can insert your MMC plus / SD(HC) memory card and the 850mAh Lithium ion battery. Simply slip them in and push and they will lock into place. Just remember to go into the camcorder's setup to switch the recording media to an external card instead of the internal memory.

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Once the side display is opened, you will have some other options you can explore. On the display frame, you have an alternate record button, a zoom control and a button to allow you access to the menu. The one thing that fooled me for a bit was some sort of navigation pad to navigate through the menu options. One option is to use the remote which works perfect and the other is seen below.

The display itself is also a VERY handy 2.7 inch touch screen. Everything is accessible in seconds with a press of a finger on the touchscreen. As you can see, it can be rather fun to explore through the hundreds of menu options. I personally will not be walking through the menu system seeing it is so vast and if anyone can setup a TV, you can setup this camera.

Focusing on the buttons opposite the display, through a small door you will see the connections for USB and video dongle connections. Above the connection panel and to the right is the internal speaker along with Samsung's Easy-Q setup button for excellent default recording settings and control buttons for the LCD display brightness boost and the display of recording information on screen. The Easy-Q is the best option for most users seeing it wraps all the perfect quality and anti-vibration options under one button. The HDMI connection that was on the camcorder in the previous generation is now incorporated into the included docking station. I still prefer it on the camcorder itself so I didn't have to tote the dock around with me in case I was playing back some recorded content in another place other than my home. It's just one more thing to tote around and lose.

Even with all the fiddling I have done to make things just right, they were all essentially the same as what this one button offers. Again, Samsung has kept everything very simple so you will not need a tech degree just to record some video.

 

The large widescreen display is exceptionally bright, clear and sharp. Even from an arm's length away, the display can still easily be easily read. As seen in this picture, you will be able to keep track of battery and recording time info, quality settings, options enabled and the touch screen options to access the menu system.

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PRODUCT USE & TESTING

In this section I will be going through my thoughts on using this product over the course of a couple of months including my wedding. I will be updating this review accordingly over time once more recording content is acquired. I will be posting samples as they come available.

Photo Mode

The photo feature of this camera can't and will not replace a full on camera when it comes to image quality and dedicated photo features. But with that being said as a pseudo-disclaimer for the photography hobbyists, the digital camera can be summed up to being above average and when it comes to standard everyday photos. It does the job perfectly well. Another nice addition is the macro setting which allows for some pretty exceptional close up photos. In fact, it is better during macro photos than some stand alone digital cameras I have used in the past.

When taken on outings involving both photo and HD video capturing, this one device does the job of both and in most cases would have me leaving my standard digital camera at home and using the SC-HMX20C as the only device for the day. It's not perfect, but with 8MP camera along with a full 1080p HD camcorder in one device makes things a lot simpler.

With all photo settings at the finest quality and highest resolution of 3264x2448, you will get approximately 374 photos per one gigabyte of storage which in reality means if you pop in a 16Gb SDHC like I did, you can hold almost 6000 photos if you used this solely for photo purposes. Battery use is minimal and should allow you to take a day worth of photos on one charge with ease. I wasn't able to drain the battery even down a third of its capacity after using it for an evening.

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Overall, for being not the focus of this product, it is definitely a useful feature. Just keep in mind that the camera does not take HD photos in 16:9 aspect ratios. It takes them in standard 4:3 aspect ratio like any other camera on the market.

Video Recording

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Video recording honestly couldn't be any simpler. Set the resolution and quality, slap in a memory card if needed and hit record. Whether you are using a 1080i at 60 fps interlaced or 1080p at 30fps progressive scan, you will be chewing through around one gigabyte of memory for every eight minutes of recording time. Of course, dropping the quality and then downgrading the resolution to standard 4:3 will expand that to 29 minutes per gigabyte but in most cases, you won't be doing that unless you are running out of memory and still want to keep on recording in a pinch. Regardless of quality, all files are recorded in MPEG4 format which means you will be strapped to using the DIVX player or *shudder* Quicktime to view any recorded content. Regardless of HD or SD quality settings, content is clear and does reflect the quality setting you actually pick for the particular job.

With either setting you will be limited to 80-85minutes worth of battery life before a charge will be necessary. Samsung's battery estimates are accurate and I saw up to 90minutes when recording in certain lower light environments which ease the LCD's drain on the battery.

Now when it comes to viewing the recorded 1080p content, if you can use the camera's player, do so. The HD playback on even a QX6700 quad core computer using the DIVX player or Quicktime is challenging. Make sure you have an adequate system before you try to view HD content. Progressive HD content rendering will stress even the best of machines and even my X6800 Xtreme Dual Core was stuttering when playing back the higher quality content. At first I thought there was a problem with the camera, but it turns out it was a system that wasn't fast enough to view the content properly.

But when you sum up the basic HD recording capability of this camcorder, it's simple to use, the recording quality is excellent and the battery life is pretty respectable for such a small battery recording in Full HD.  

CONCLUSIONS & AFTERTHOUGHTS

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The SC-HMX20C represents an HD camcorder that most will find easy use; feature packed and has all issues solved from the previous year's model. Through extensive testing, there wasn't much it couldn't handle and performance and image/video quality were excellent for such a small unit. Samsung's first offering the Full HD camcorder market seems to be an easy winner with simplicity, features and great build quality.

Through four months of testing including my own wedding, real world testing usually shows a weakness rather quickly and that was the case with the previous generation's model, but the SC-HMX20C corrected those problems and thus made one of the best camcorder experiences I have had to date. The one update I would like to see if full 24fps recording to take advantage of movie mode on most HD TVs today and to allow you to view the recorded content as smooth as possible. But with the advance in technology lately, this feature should be on the market any day now.

In one small package you really couldn't ask for anymore functionality. It already covers it all in one purchase.

Pros: - Easy to Use- Compact- Automatic Lens cover- Decent Photo capability - Automatic Photo Flash- Remote Control Included

Cons: - HD Photos would be Nice- Expensive - Availability 

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