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...
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