Customer Reviews

Samsung SC-HMX10 8GB Flash Memory High Definition Camcorder with 10x Optical Zoom (SDHC compatible)

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I reviewed this camcorder on another camcorde site, but not alot of people peruse that site, so I thougt I would post the review here as well.

I didn't purchase this camcorder from Amazon, (but only because someone got it for me as a gift from another store) but when I was looking for advice on this camcorder it was hard to find.

I'm putting my review here in hopes that it helps someone who wants to buy this camcorder but cannot find any helpful reviews on this camcorder, because it's so new.

Here it is....

Okay, since the place that the camera was bought from has a great return policy, I thought I would open it up to see just how good or bad it was.
Let me say that I am by no means qualified to compare pixels, low light, etc etc etc...my review is based on my being a father and amateur that just wanted a easy point and shoot camcorder that records pictures and movies in great quality.
Upon opening this camera, let me say that it's the smallest thing I've ever seen. It would fit into a fabric sunglass bag (oakleys), that's how small it is.
I shot movies outside in full sunlight and inside during the day and the movies came out great!
I also tried to shoot in low light situation and it worked pretty good as well. I have nothing to compare it to, but whatever I shot looked pretty good.
I also tried it at night time and this is where it was kinda weak. Alot of details couldn't be seen, but being that it was Christmas, I took it to our local city hall and shot the surrounding decorations and I could see everything on my t.v.
The night time shooting is decent if there is sufficient ambient light. I did notice that when I shot video in almost complete darkness (streetlights only) I couldn't make out any details. The zoom was plenty fast and most of all (to me anyway) the performance was great.
Overall, picture quality was AWESOME....I don't know where the other reviewers (especially on Amazon) are shooting their videos but I was very impressed with my video quality.
Now, this doesn't say that it's perfect.
There are some definite flaws to this camera.
The battery for one. The battery will (according to the manual) shoot for about 20-30 minutes with all the zooming and stuff. I shot for about 10 minutes and I had no problems, but if I had to shoot all day without a spare, I wouldn't be happy about it. I thought that this was way too short. I wouldn't have minded so much if they sold an extended life battery but they don't (heck you can't even find a spare battery for sale, anywhere!)
Also, to take a picture, you have to push a button and switch from Video mode to Picture mode, and this takes approximately 1-2 seconds to switch over. I really didn't like that feature.
Since I don't have a high Definition dvd player, I had to hook the camcorder to my t.v. to watch the movies in hi-def and to do this, you have to open the lcd screen and plug the cables into the side of the camera.

The unfortunate thing about this camera was the format in which it records to. I have to agree with a lot of people that this new hi def format is a killer for most computers. I have a PIV 3.2 with 2 gigs of ram and while trying to make a movie in hi def, my computer would lock up and take forever to process the movie. However, if you convert it back to SD using the cyberlink software that is provided, you will notice that it looks almost as good as the hi def with half the processing time.
Since this is the format that most hi def camcorders are using, I don't see how anyone can fault Samsung for it.
So here are my pros and cons for this camcorder;

Pros;
Size....fits in the palm of my hand and it's super light
Performance/video quality....awesome, great quality
Cost....about 300 dollars cheaper than the Canon I'm going to get in the future
Media...records to a 8 gb internal memory or you can use sd cards to record to
looks....looks cool
Ease of use...touch screen, easy menus, point and shoot, perfect for those that don't want to have to learn how to use a gazillion different functions just to take videos of their kids...


Cons;
Battery...small, does not last, and unable to find xtra batteries
Photos...unable to take snap shot during video recording..takes too long to switch over
Use..ridiculous that you have to open LCD just to hook up cables to t.v.
Requirements...not the cameras fault, but still, I'm unable to watch the videos I shot on my computer and you will need a newer computer just to process the data. This HI Def format is great, but I would wait a bit for more support for it.

Would I recommend it...heck yeah! BUT....only if your computer can handle the processing (unless you just want to convert it to SD, then it doesn't matter). For the money and for what it can do, it's a great little camera.
Did I keep it...No, but only because of the fact that my computer obviously couldn't handle the files and since I don't have a high def dvd player (yet) I didn't want to keep plugging the darn thing into my t.v. just to watch it in hi def. The battery life was a small factor as well. My friend has a Sony hdd camcorder and he has an extended battery on it that will last for almost 4 hours (he says so) and that makes me want one that will last that long as well.
I'm going to wait until the support for hi def is more readily available and I also wanted the capabilities to record for longer than 1 hour without having to buy a bunch of SD cards...a hdd camcorder will not incur any additional costs to do so.
Eventually, I will buy a hi def camcoder, and who knows, in the future maybe I'll buy this one again if the price drops and more parts are available for it...i.e. batteries..
Hope this insight helps someone who is considering this camcorder, because it really is a cool little camcorder that records videos well.
Thanks for everyones advice on this matter...

I do not fully agree with the previous posters comments. The camera is quite good and extremely compact. With SD memory cards increasing in size and reducing in price, it seems like a great way to go. In regards to the AVCHD recording format, this camcorder and many others from Sony and Canon have the same issue, which was the lack of support from software makers to adopt it. But this has all changed, there are some products from both the MAC and PC, Final Cut Express 4 and Nero 8 respectively that natively handle AVCHD and can edit and convert it into any format. The hardware requirements to run this software seems to require a fairly newer computer, but nothing on the extreme side.

Just my take on it.

Update. After having this camcorder for a year I can say that it was a worthy buy. Once technology cought up with this camera, it worked with no issues. By that I mean that in the last year I have updated my destop anc got a new laptop and have not had the video issues I had with my old systems. The videos play in media player and can be edited in any video editor with no special setup or conversion. All works as expected. And video quality is EXCELLENT. Just turn OFF anti-shake.

********

Ok one of the most common complaints about this camcorder is it's use of the new and relatively unsupported compression format. But there is an easy way around this and it's the software bundle that comes with the camcorder, PowerDirector. It's a simple video editing software versioned specifically for this camcorder. If you want to use a different program for editing or playing videos you can just drop a video clip into PowerDirector and then just export the untouched video to some other format. I chose the commonly supported mpeg 2 format and the file is made into a useful format with no apparent quality loss. Simple.

As far as I'm concerned there is no problem with the file format.

This is definitely a camera with its own pros and cons, but the harsh reviews it is getting are completely unbiased. I have had virtually none of the other reviewed problems stated in the previous comments.

As for the camera itself it is very light, and it is much smaller that I thought it would be which makes video recording a snap, pair it with the switchable hand positions and you have a camera that can be used for extended periods of time. It also has pretty good low light performance, I tested it while Christmas light looking and the video came out quite nice. But it can be a bit sensitive to certan colors of light, if the light is a soft orangish color it can make you videos look a bit stranger than they already did in the light. As for video play back on your pc I simple copied them on to my pc, and they started automatically, they played natively in the zune software. I also copied them on to my flash drive and played them on my Xbox 360 with no problems at all.

Of course not everything about this camera is prefect. For one the internal memory is very slow co copying and reading files of the camera, I could not plug it directly into my 360 and play the files off of it. This does not seem to effect the normal recording operation of the camera though. And of course the video quality isn't perfect, but is about what you would expect for a consumer camera that can be found for as little as $650 dollars. The video has a few artifacts and an overall home movie feel, but its by no means terrible its quite nice looking, even though its no like watching an HD-DVD. For the price its the best bang for the buck.

Well, Samsung, which usually has superior electronics that function as smooth and well as they look, has fallen victim to the software lobby which has screwed the pooch on this camcorder. Here's what I'm talking about...
It is a total snap to set up, learn to use, and use this sleek, cool-looking, and small camcorder. It is equally as easy to transfer videos to your PC, which is a huge downfall of every other camcorder. With the SC-HMX10C (which was featured on Oprah as one of her top 10 favorite things this holiday season), it is literally as easy as hooking up a USB port and "cut and paste" the videos to your desired folder. The videos can be recorded in a range of clarity from HD, all the way down to standard definition economy. The videos are all recorded in .MP4 format. Here's the kicker, and where Samsung screwed up and sold out...
The videos are recorded with a certain codec, which is essentially a formatting code programmed into the video file that allows the video to be viewed only by certain video players. In this case, the only software that can view the Samsung SC-HMX10's videos is the cheap, annoyingly poor quality Cyberlink DVD Suite software that comes with the camcorder. And it just so happens that the version that comes with the camcorder will only play the audio...not the video. And it will only even do THAT by right clicking on the video file and choosing "Open With" and the included software. I guess Samsung got lobbied by Cyberlink to codec the videos so you had to use their software to view it and Samsung caved. It even states right in the user's manual, "Use the provided software to play back the movie images in the PC. The movie images recorded on your HD camcorder may not be played back in other software" (p. 92). It's akin to creating an otherwise SWEET camcorder and coding the video so that only RealPlayer (PC World's #2 worst tech product of all time) could play it. My older Olympus camera records videos in .MP4 format and Quicktime always plays those videos with no problem at all. But with Samsung's specially coded .MP4s both Quicktime and even iTunes lock up and/or crash if I try to view the videos with those. The only way I can watch the videos is by converting them to an .avi using a free program called Super by eRightSoft...an easy, but annoying process. And the videos are then highly pixelated and not even close to HD or even standard definition video quality.
(NOTE: I have not yet tried to play videos directly from my camcorder to my TV, nor have I tried burning the videos I copied to my PC to a DVD and watching them)
So now I have a cool, sleek, $763 (that's what I paid, including taxes) camcorder that will cost me over $100 in "repackaging fees" if I return it that is absolutely worthless because I can't watch the videos it takes that are easily transferable to my PC.
It makes you wonder why companies like Samsung that have an otherwise totally superior product would cave in and make its playback versatility so exclusive that it is (at least in my case) unusable.
I did call Samsung customer support and hardly waited at all to talk with a "Level 1" support tech (meaning, they basically have a FAQ that they're familiar with to answer most customer support issues) that spoke english really well. Unfortunately, since this camcorder is so new, she had no resources to draw from so I had to be transferred to a "Level 2" support tech (someone with a more detailed, working knowledge of a group of items). Unfortunately, they're only open from 9am-9pm on weekdays (it's Saturday as I write this).
A word to Samsung QA and every other company out there that has anything to do with video files: There are only two media players worth a darn - Windows Media Player and Quicktime. If your videos aren't 100% compatible with either or both, then they're a waste...
...just like the Samsung SC-HMX10C unfortunately. Despite a very user-friendly interface, cool looks, and a sleek, small size, I still gave it the worst rating (1 star) because I can't watch the videos it's supposed to be taking. As I stated in the title above, having a camcorder in which you cannot view the videos is rather self-defeating.
Any other questions, you can contact me at headbanger51 at yahoo dot com. I hope someone from Samsung does contact me, because the issue of having videos specially coded so that only ONE player (the annoying version included with the SC-HMX10C) can view said videos is an issue of biblical proportions in its annoyance.
If I were running things at Samsung QA, I'd at least post a downloadable codec on their website to install into Quicktime to make the videos viewable.
I hope this was helpful.
UPDATE (27 Nov 07): I spoke at great length today with level 2 tech support at Samsung. I'm happy to report they were based in NJ so they spoke clear english and were very patient. However, after speaking with several people, no one could figure out how to play the files on my PC. After downloading several different programs and emailing me several different codecs, even tech support threw in the towel. Interestingly enough, tech support was not yet aware of which software came bundled with the SC-HMX10. In my lengthy conversation with them, my unofficial conclusion is that this product was rushed to release to make the holiday shopping season. I cannot pinpoint what else was said to help me reach that conclusion. I just know remember that there were several things said that made me think it was rushed. I remember him saying there were a lot of issues being troubleshot. I would think that this would be one that would have been troubleshot many times over by now to ensure the video could be played on the widest variety of software configurations on a PC/Mac. As of today, I have sent in a request to Executive Customer Relations for a full refund, since the store I bought it from will charge me $115 in restocking fees! Each case is reviewed on an individual basis. But I'm hoping, and obviously feel justified in asking for and being granted a refund.

So far I'm loving this very little camcorder. It's exactly the size I wanted and with 8 gigs of built in memory it will get about 90 minutes of 720p footage. The video quality looks nice considering the size and price of the unit (it's 720p, not 1080p and you can tell the difference...image stabilization works great). I have gone fully hi-def in my house and the HDMI port on this camera was a must. The touchscreen and audible feedback is fantastic. The battery outlasts the memory which is a plus. I haven't hooked it up to my PC yet to edit video, but I fear no codec problems....I've conquered many of those before. Also, you can edit directly on the camera so unless you are adding effects or credits there is no need for PC editing. The first downside is the same downside for all hi-def camcorders....you need a Blu-Ray or HD-DVD burner to put movies on disc. I will be experimenting with other options such as streaming video from PC through my network, using memory cards etc, but in the end I know a hi-def burner will be best. The second downside is the LED light for filming in the dark. It takes quite a journey through the menu to turn on the light. You would think there would be a simple button on the camera to toggle this on and off, but even with the light on it's not very bright and it's a blueish hue so not very natural looking. I was surprised to see it had no "night vision" feature, even my 4 year old mini-dv cheapy camcorder has that feature. The other downside is I do not believe there is a flash for taking photographs. Not a deal killer because who buys a camcorder for taking pictures? Overall I'm very pleased.


UPDATE
OK I've reviewed this camera once before nearly a year ago. Since then I've had time to play with things and I think I found a good work around for the jerky .mp4 playback.

Just use an SDHC card instead of recording to the built in memory. For some reason when I record to my 16 gig SDHC card the videos play perfectly on my computer. If you get an error telling you to format the card even after you already have, simply pop the card out and put it back in while the camcorder is still on. I'm not sure why, but the camera will want to format everytime you turn it on.

I am very annoyed by all the negative reviews that are not the cameras fault but USER DEFAULT. That's not to say the camera is perfect but it comes close esspecially for the price $397.00!

I want to clear up some of the problems other people were having based on them just not reading directions or their tvs, pcs etc. having issues.

First of all you have to have a HD tv with a HDMI cable. It does not come with the HDMI cable! They can be very expensive and but if you have HDTV you should already have one to be able to view your cable, sattelite or bluray in HD so rest assured.

Hooking up the video camera to the HDMI cable was so easy... you just unplug your HDMI cable from whatever it is in (cable box, dvd player) and plug it into the port, put it on the right input & turn on the camera! voila! very simple and easy.

Like someone else reviewed they are VERY specific on the specifications the computer has to have in order to run the software it comes with! And even if your computer meets those standards if it is bogged down with lots of programs, pictures, games etc. it is not going to work correctly!
This is pretty easy to get around though you can edit your videos on the camera and just hook up your camera and burn it to a dvd (which you should already have on your computer if you have a dvd burner) that way you dont have to have the software on your computer if it is slower or doesnt meet the standards.

I do not reccomend this camera for anyone who wants to record in low light situations! It is not terrrible but it is not good. As far as recording in dark situations I would rate it a 5 out of 10. But I do not plan on using it in the dark much if ever so this isnt a issue for me. I do plan on tweeking the settings more though to get it to look better in low light but it might also just be easier to turn a light!

Another complaint is the zoom and focus. It is only 10x zoom... This is fine for everyday use but if you plan on using this for concerts or anything far away this may annoy you. Also I hate how it sometimes takes a little bit to focus this might be something I can get in there and fix with the advance settings and you can always edit that scene out which I have already done directly on the camera.

Now with the complaints out of the way I want to rave about the camera!

First the Clarity! It is unreal and even my husband was shocked. I couldnt belive the detail it could focus in on on our daughters Elmo stuffed animal... You could see the details of the fuzz and stiching it was amazing! It was raining when I got the camera and I sat inside and opened up the door and focues in on the rain dropping and for a distance it was crystal clear! I am going to try and upload still pictures of this to share on this review later.

I love the touch screen it isnt the kind where you barley touch it you actually have to tap it which I like because a overly sensitive touch screen can be very annoying and cause problems.

The size is perfect... it's very small but not annoyingly small. It comes with a soft pouch and it fits perfect in my purse and I look foward to being able to keep my digital & video camera in my purse when I leave the country in 2 months.

The swivel grip is a nice touch and we have already used it when taping our infant on the floor.

I reccomend this camera to anyone who has HD in their home and want something cheap & easy to use. It isnt anything professional and isnt perfect but it is very close and for $397.00 you cant beat that. I had the choice between this camera and a few other standard cameras for the same price... why not get the HD camera that is capable of standard recording and hd? It is also very trendy looking so for all you starbucks artsy people this will definitly impress your friends with it's cool design and touch screen.

I think for the $397.00 price tag this is the best camera you could get. If you want to shell out $1000 for a HD camera then go for it but if you cant afford that and were already looking to just get a normal camera for under $500 then this is the camera for you. I also wanted to add there are 3 recording resolutions HD, Standard and below standard... Standard looks almost as good as HD & below standard looks pretty darn good too! the only diference is you get more recording time on the 8gb drive and like 5 minutes more battery time.

I do plan on getting a 8 or 16gb SD card but only because I am going to the Bahamas and I want to make sure I can take lots of HD videos of the beach :-) I think the average person can get away with the 8gb hard drive and a 2-4 gb card. It does come with a card that tells you how much time you will get out of the hard drive in all the modes & how much time you will get with a 2, 4, 8 & 16gb sd card which I think is nice they included that information.

I am sure I will update this review as I use the camera more and hopefully get a good still image of my HD recordings to share with all of you.

I was worried about buying this camera because of the mixed reviews but I went through and read all of them and when I saw most of them were user default I figured this was the best option for the price and boy was I right!!

~Oh one more thing I gave it 5 stars based on the price. If I had payed full price I would have given it a 4

I have just recently purchasd the Samsung HD camcorder, and I've recieved it today. I've been playing around with it for hours on end, and its great.

I've hooked it up with our Westington HDTV with the HDMI cable, and the picture quality was astonishing. The full 720p resolution and also full 720p quality.

I will post video previews that I have recorded and uploaded straight from the camera for you eventually.

I was a little hesitant of getting this camera because they said that it does not play on computers, PC or Mac. I have not been able to get it to play on a Mac, but I'll continue to try. However, it plays fine on PC's. Even our old Gateway (6 years) XP Home edition plays the videos perfectly through Apples Quicktime Player. (They are skippy because the computer is really old.)

I have not tried Windows Media Player, because Quicktime works fine. The Electronic Image Stabilization (EIS) is very good. When you zoom in, your video gets shakier and shakier, but when zoomed all the way out, it is very steady.

You have read that the annoying green STBY image and the red recording dot stays on your video when you play it back through the TV. That is not true, at all. They will show up, but the rewind, fast foward, play, pause buttons eventually fade away, but if you want to get rid of the STBY and REC images, just click the "icheck" button. (And when playing back on the computer, its ONLY VIDEO, nothing else in the way.)

The LED light is very bright, and very nice. It has a slight blue tint with it, but thats okay because the backlight is also very nice. The touchscreen is much better then Sony's touchscreens. The camera has a VERY stirdy build, and really fits in your palm perfectly.

And the low light performance is a lot better then you'd expect. Well worth the retail price, but I'd go with a deal (which is how i got it.)

OH, and all the parts where you move them to plug in the charger, AV slot, USB port, etc., are all built very nicely. Not cheap like Sony, or Panasonic.

I would recommend this camera to everyone!

OH, and very important, the audio quality is very good. The annoying background noises that are known to consumer camcorders are now at an all time low in the Samsung!

Samsung, thank you!

Just got this camcorder and I really like it so far. It's tiny and light, easy to use and makes great pictures. But there are some irksome items that you should be aware of.

As others have noted, this camera produces video clips that can be difficult to edit, or even play, on a PC. You can use the rather lame Cyberlink "Power" apps that come with the camera. PowerDVD works OK for basic viewing. PowerDirector will do basic editing or it can translate clips to an MPEG2-HD format for use elsewhere.

In theory, this camera produces standard MP4-H264 files. (note: not AVCHD.) But, at least on my system (XP, Core2Duo PC, fairly fast), many programs that claim to support .mp4 files, do not work correctly with the ones from this camera. Hopefully this will be fixed, since these *are* supposed to be standard files. But right now, no dice. I tried Quicktime 7.4.5 and Premiere Elements 4 without success. (This is probably where the complaints about jerky playback come from - bet they're not using the supplied PowerDVD player.) However, I have read where others have gotten this to work on both Macs and PCs, so maybe I'm just unlucky.

Next issue - batteries. One BP-85ST battery comes with the camera. One full charge of this battery is approximately enough to fill 8 GB, about 80 minutes, assuming you are shooting in the highest-quality HD mode. (which you should be, otherwise why bother with this camera?) This is fine, but if you have more chips to fill, you will need extra batteries. Problem is, they are very hard to find. Amazon does not carry them at this time. (Don't make the mistake I did and buy no-name aftermarket batteries! They will not work, because the camera enforces the use of only the real Samsung batteries.) Amazon, get the batteries in stock, please! (Oh and BTW, the only way to charge them is in the camera, so how about an external charger, too?)

- Remember that this is an inexpensive camera, folks. Works best shooting outdoors or in bright light, where you will get very nice pictures. Low light shots are not great. The image stabilizer is pretty lame too.

Miscellaneous items -

- The camera takes standard 30mm filters. Keep a UV filter on it so you won't get tripped up by the stupid manual lens-cover feature again. I also recommend a circular polarizer for any outdoor work.

- The camera uses SDHC flash memory cards. Be sure you get class-6 high speed cards. Be sure you have a reader for SDHC; many standard SD readers will not read SDHC. In the best quality HD mode you get about 10-12 minutes per GB of capacity.

- The Samsung CA-E3 12 volt car power adapter works fine with this model even though it is not listed as doing so, yet. (You do have to use the little adapter plug that comes with it.) Unfortunately this unit is also very hard to find. Samsung needs to improve distribution of their accessories.

This is last season's model and the new HMX20 is arriving very soon; main difference, it's 1080 instead of 720. And of course it will cost more. It's your choice. I think this one is probably fine for most people. Certainly it's no Canon or Sony, but for budget HD shooting it's hard to beat at the current low price.

Hi everyone,

I got this camcorder as a Christmas present, and I've been fiddling with it around the house.

First, the camcorder itself
-It has a battery life of a little over an hour, give or take
-The LCD is a touch screen, which makes maneuvering through the menu very easy. The LCD is also very clear
-The videos can be recorded in HD or standard; however, it takes only 3 megapixel pictures, so I wouldn't suggest that you get this camcorder to use as a camera
-I wish the strap was a bit softer, more flexible, so I could have a better grip on the camera, which luckily is small.
-The built-in editing mode is pretty good; you can easily combine 2 videos, delete portions of your movie, and divide your video while you're on the go.

Second, viewing the camcorder on TV and PC
-I was able to view and edit my videos without issues on my PC with the CyberLink DVD Suite, which is included; installation took an unusually long time (approx. 30 minutes to 40 minutes) on my laptop(Vista, Intel Duo, 2 GB Ram).
-I think if you're computer doesn't have the recommended specifications you shouldn't expect to watch your videos on computer, at least with CyberLink. The recommended specifications for the CyberLink program are pretty high-- Vista or XP, 1 GB or greater RAM, and Intel Pentium 4 3.2GHz/AMD Ahtlon 64FX/Intel Core 2 Duo. They also say that a video card like the nVIDIA Geforce 7600GT, ATi X1600 or higher is needed, but if you have an Intel Duo processor like me, it's not necessary. That would make sense as the encoding is pretty new.
-When using other video players, my videos were choppy and sometimes lacked sound. I tested VLC Media Player, Quicktime, GOM Player, Real Player Alternative, Windows Media Player. I'm guessing this will not be as much an issue in the future as HD video is still very new.
-Playing my movies on TV was easy; I just attached the camcorder to the TV via the av cable and set the camcorder to view mode. Unfortunately, we don't have an HD TV yet so I can't fully discuss that aspect.