Customer Reviews

Samsung HMX-H106 HD SSD Flash Memory Camcorder with 64 GB Memory and 10x Optical Zoom

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I have owned this Samsung HMX-H106 Camera for about 2 months and have enloyed using it. I like the ease of use and quality of the resulting picture... BUT there is a problem! I tried to use the included A/V cord to connect the camera directly to my HD TV and was surprised that the picture was in a blurry black and white! I double checked the connection at the camera plug and found that it would come in perfectly in full HD color if I pushed in on the connection plug and held it under pressure! Oh great, I'll just stand here and push the a/v cable into the camera plug so I can watch my video in color! I am quite sure it isn't simply the a/v cord that is bad but rather the plug on the camera itself.

BE WARNED! the Samsung "Customer Service" for this product is NON EXISTANT! full of "I'm sorry sir" and other scripted responses from their "Customer Service" people without any help for a defective product. I called the SAMSUNG customer Service (1-800-SAMSUNG) and was told that I would get a new a/v Cable sent to me at no cost. Thet are requiring that I eliminate the problem from being the a/v cord before they will allow me to send in the camera for repair. It has now been over 4 weeks and several return calls from me to Samsung and still no new a/v cable. To make things worse, the Samsung phone representative sounds like they are from a call center in India and simply cannot speak english well enough for you to understand.

Also, a few other items should be noted on the design of this product: No audio jack - you cannot listen to any playback of your recorded video from the camera without hearing it through the micro speaker near the off button. No external audio plug for recording either. No ability to use a camera light to shoot video in low light conditions, the built in light on the unit is only a flash for still pictures only. No accessories are available yet for this camera.

Well, I'm going to keep this short and sweet. The video quality is
really good, the focus is good, the lens is good.

The editing software is built into the camera, and works well, if limited, and you'll need a decent PC to process the HD in real time. If you want to do multi-audio or video crossfades etc you'll need to convert the format to raw avi or similar and use Premiere or Vegas or similar.

Something missing which was listed in the original specs is the 1080P/30fps. Maybe it's coming in a firmware update.

Speaking of which, it needs one, badly. The internal file size on the disc is limited to 2 gig, so in 720p for example, every 28 minutes or so it has to create a new file and continue recording. which is fine, except the camera doesn't pre-record the few seconds it takes to create the new file. As a result you lose a couple of seconds of footage and you never even know until playback time. Samsung haven't replied to my support request on the matter yet.

Overall, a great camera let down by a serious recording flaw. Please Samsung, please fix this!!

The Samsung HMX-H106 is freakin awesome. Coming off Sony Digital camcorders (one disk and one tape), this camera beats the crap out of that old technology. It's blazing fast, small and sleek, and easy to use. You can take a movie and play it back quickly and erase a clip you don't like. Try doing that with the other technology. It'd take forever. Here it takes no time. This thing will fit in your pocket (ok a large pocket) and is unobtrusive yet takes amazing HD video. I'm not a big filming buff and hate dragging equipment around on vacations that gets in the way of actually enjoying the trip so this is perfect. It makes you want to use it since its so small and easy to use.

I'd say the only negatives are no infra-red or built in video light. There will probably be such accessories forthcoming but for now, it's tough to take pics or movies in the dark. It does have a flash for photos though but you need some lighting present for the camera to focus properly.

Overall, highly recommended and would find it pretty much impossible to go back to discs or tapes or even hard drive and removable flash memory. I switched to Samsung TV's a while ago because they simply outdo the competition in offering the latest features in a friendly, sleek package...this is definitely another step in the right direction.

I purchased it to replace a 3 yr old Sony mini DV camcorder, and it exceeded my expectations in every aspect. It is sturdy and compact (no moving parts other than auto lense cover); very easy to operate with great battery life; the HD video (can recored up to 12 hrs)it captured just blew me away... I am very pleased with it

After dealing with 8MM tapes for 10 years (Sony Digital Handycam), I started investigating non-tape camcorders. Lots of inexpensive models to use from but I discoved the HMX-H106 at CES 2009. This is the first camcoder with Solid State Drive (SSD) technology. So why SSD as opposed to a Hard Disk Drive? SSD offers better performance, higher durability, is more lightweight, reduces power consumption and operates faster than a typical HDD. I've had the unit for about a month and have recorded approx 20 hours. The high def recordings and playback are superb. This unit comes with 64GB memory which means it holds hours and hours of high def videos. There are ONLY two negatives; 1. when I hit record, there's a delay of about 5 seconds before the zoom function can be used, 2. the camcorder comes with video editing software. It's not that intuitive to use and has crashed on Vista a few times already. In closing, at $899 it's steep but if you want high quality (high def) videos, this is what you're looking for.

I bought the hmx-h106 camera because every source out there touts it as a 1080p camera. It's not. I should have known when it didn't even come with the HDMI cable, and only component cables. If you read the fine specs on Samsung's website, it does clearly state that this is ONLY 1080i. And it barely does 1080i/30 without being grainy and jittery even in outdoor lighting. The 720p/60 is just so-so with a lot of grainy in even moderate lighting. The 64GB SSD is incredibly good and better for the life of the camera, but according to the manual, you can't shoot more than a 1.8GB continuous video (around an hour). Battery life is ok, but doesn't charge from USB, and uses a proprietary square plug charger. This means when you go to transfer video, you NEED to plug in using the AC and USB #and don't ever loose the AC adapter because a new one in listed on Samsungs site for 39.99!) Image stabilization is a joke, on or off made no difference in image. Also very awkward to hold, even with the rotating grip, you can't quite get the single handed position to let you start/stop and zoom.
Touch screen is great.
Just google hmx-h106 and 1080p. Prepare to be confused.
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I love this camera! I was weary about buying it because of how low the price was but after I purchased it and started using it I was amazed at how awesome it was for the price! I started showing people in my family how awesome this camera was and my sister bought one about a week after I showed her. I love the fact that it has 64 GB internal HD plus an SD card slot. The videos are in high definition and it looks better than any home video I have ever had experience with. If you want to buy this from a retail store you will probably pay $600 more. Just buy it from Amazon and you wont be disappointed. I only use this for home movies and it does everything I want it to do. So if you are looking for something with crazy expectations then maybe this camera isn't for you.

Unbelievably awesome!

Great quality in all settings. The wide angle lens makes for a bit of funky looking video when posting to youtube un-edited but the quality is unparalleled in camcorders for anything except professional. Battery is ok, I'd recommend getting extras though for events longer than an hour.

This is a nice tidy camcorder that takes great outside video. Fits perfectly in my hand. My limited experience with indoor recording was hit or miss when it concerned video quality.

This camera only shoots in widescreen mode and also is not seamlessly compatible with Macintosh computers.

I don't know if we are doing something wrong, but, no matter how still I hold the camera, the people moving when you play back the video make you dizzy. I would say it's horrible at taking any type of action video. Uploading it to Facebook is also poor- you can hardly see any of the video. Perhaps it is too HD.
Unhappy.