Review of Samsung SC-HMX10 HD camcorder

Back in March Samsung sent me its recently released SC-HMX10 HD camcorder to check out. Here are some first impressions:

First and above all else, this camcorder is a delight to carry around and use. It’s stylish, curvy and awesomely sleek. The form factor is unparalled: It’s so portable and lightweight (a bit under 13 ounces) that it can fit in your jacket or pants pocket (though beware of off-color jokes).

If you’re in the market for a camcorder, I suggest you pony up the extra dinero for a hi-def camcorder. A few years from now, your standard-def footage will look as quaint as those 8mm home movies. Today you can find a hi-def camcorder like the HMX10 for between $400 and $800. The HMX10 falls into the budget HD category, so if you have some extra money to spend, you may want to consider some higher-end options as well. (A full-page ad in my paper today advertised the 8GB HXM20 model for $749.)

Memory card vs. DV tape

This is Samsung’s first hi-def camcorder, and the video quality is very good, though short of superb. My other hi-def camcorder is the Canon HDV-20, which takes mini-DV tapes. You’ll need to decide which route to take: memory card or mini-DV.

If you’re ready for the leap into all-digital land, the Samsung’s a good solution. No tapes to mess with. Intuitive, easy to use controls, though this unit’s touchscreen controls are a matter of taste. Very nice 10x optical zoom. Super-portable. The 1.5M pixel CCD with Electronic Image Stabilizer
makes for sharp footage (you can take stills, too), though not as sharp as some higher-end models. The files are compressed to 720p (1280×720) H.264 MPEG-4, which works on multiple platforms.

Here’s my interview with Sarah Lacy, taken with the SC-HMX10 and encoded at 600 frames per second (the lighting was iffy). And a recent interview with Peter Deitz of Social Actions and the research director of MAPLight.org. If you’re planning on shots at the park with your kids or outdoor shots of an event or activity, the HMX10 is a clear winner. (It’s less winning indoors or in low light.)

But I’m not ready to give up on my 10-month old HV20 (above) yet. Here’s why:

• Lighting. As far as I can tell, there’s no way to mount a lighting unit on top of the HMX10, as I do with my HV20. And the built-in LED video light, which turns your subjects blue, doesn’t pack enough punch. As a result, the lighting is uneven in all three examples above (a concern for pros more than amateurs).

• Archiving. The memory card vs. tape debate will likely go on for a few more years. I still shoot most footage with the HV20 for a simple reason: I want a hard copy of the footage. If something goes wrong with my hard drive, I don’t want all those precious memories lost. And backing up MPEG-4 files can add up to terabytes of data over time.

• Storage. The SC-HMX10 comes with 8 gigs of internal Flash memory, which is enough to get you going. On the Fourth of July I took it out to shoot a fireworks display at a local park, and within 10 minutes it was filled. I tried to switch over to the 4-gig memory card I installed — and it didn’t see it despite numerous tries. Alas, couldn’t shoot the rest of the fireworks. In addition, the touch screen is supposed to let you review footage that you shot, but an apparent software bug prevents some video from showing up on the LCD.

• Transfer issues. If you use a camcorder to shoot scenes and watch ’em on your digital TV, the HXM10 is a great choice. It comes with HDMI, USB and component/AV ports. But I often edit my movies. The HXM10 doesn’t come with a Firewire port (what the heck?), so when I fire up iMovie and choose Import, my computer doesn’t see the device. Instead, I have to first transfer the files (via USB) to the Mac, and then import them into iMovie. This can be an ordeal. My 20-minute interview with Sarah Lacy, for example, amounted to a file larger than a gigabyte. It took more than 90 minutes to import into iMovie — and I have a high-end Mac Plus. I actually ordered an HDMI to DVI cable, thinking that might work. No such luck, iMovie still didn’t see it, and iMovie doesn’t accept transfers over the comparatively slow USB2 port. There may be another way to import, but it’s not apparent to me.

Those complaints aside, I’m extremely fond on the SC-HMX10. It’s the camcorder I reach for when heading out to a downtown event or my kid’s baseball game. That’s reason enough to consider adding it to your shopping cart. Check out prices on Froogle.

CNET has a video review here.
JD Lasica, founder of Inside Social Media, is also a fiction author and the co-founder of the cruise discovery engine Cruiseable. See his About page, contact JD or follow him on Twitter.