- Build Quality
The build quality is really quite good — this mini camcorder does not look cheap to be sure. Although it has a shiny, not rugged, plastic exterior, it seems to be fairly scratch resistant. All the buttons are firm, not jiggly.

- SD Card Expansion Slot
The mini camcorder has about 20 MB of built-in memory, which is sufficient for only a few seconds of recording (makes me wonder why they even bother including the built-in memory). No problem – it has an SD card expansion slot. I have no trouble getting the mini camcorder to recognize my high-capacity SD card. I’m using a Kingston 8 GB microSDHC Card with an SD card adapter (came with the Kingston package).

- Digital Zoom
This mini camcorder actually has digital zoom-in/out, as opposed to optical zoom (better). The trouble with digital zooming is the image gets pixelated when you zoom in. The zooming is also a little choppy.

- LCD Screen
The display on the LCD screen is very clear. The LCD screen is somewhat smallish, but it’s perfectly adequate nonetheless.

—
For the price, this mini camcorder produces some very descent 1280 x 960 videos. The quality isn’t on par with that from a regular camcorder, of course, but it is more than adequate if you’re planning on using your videos on y0utube. It’s ultra portable and perfect for some quick and casual takes.

Before I discuss the flaw, let me talk about some of the good things. The first thing I noticed upon using this camcorder is its wide field of vision. I frequently like to take videos of myself — you know, fun little videos in which I’m holding the camera in front of me, pointing it at myself and narrating the scene. This usually works very well with most digicams, which have small lenses that have a very wide angle. However, most camcorders are nowhere near as wide angled, and so if you point the camera at yourself, you end up with a very close up shot of your face.

I was very pleasantly surprised to see that this camcorder exhibited the useful wide-angle lens of your standard digicam. I could comfortably hold the camera at arms length, pointed at me, and the shot would be well composed and not too close. It was doubly useful because the flip-out LCD screen is able to rotate 180 degrees to face the same direction as the lens, so I could see what I was recording.

However, the reason digicams are able to offer that useful wide angle is because they use fairly small lenses. Small lenses may give a wide field of view, but they are nowhere near as competent as the larger lenses found in many high-end camcorders. For casual video recording, this is not a big deal, but you should know if you buy this camcorder that its small lens will cause you to deal with trade-offs. The optical image stabilization is not very good, and at full telephoto you will be shaking a lot regardless of how steadily you are holding the camera. Also, at full telephoto the picture is not as sharp as it could be. Further, the contrast between the bright and dark colors is so great that you will often miss the lot of detail in the midrange.

That said, for casual purposes, this camcorder is fine. Unlike many low-end camcorders, the color here is not too oversaturated. And the ability to choose between a 4:3 ratio and a 16:9 ratio is useful. Or at least it would be useful if it worked. And this brings me to the fatal flaw.

The video will look beautiful when you play it on the built-in screen. But when you go to move the files to your computer, you will see that the camcorder fails to properly set the resolution on the final saved video. The end result is that widescreen videos shot in 16:9 look squished when played on the computer. And standard resolution videos shot in 4:3 looks stretched when played on the computer.

I don’t know if this is a Mac problem or a general problem. I only use a Mac computer, not a Windows computer, so I am not sure if this problem is reproducible on Windows. But I am fairly well versed in computers, and I spent a long time trying to fix this problem, to no avail. I ran the videos through iMovie, Final Cut Pro, QuickTime, and yet no matter what I tried, I was unable to fix the proportions of the videos. As it stands, I cannot use any of the video I took, for any purposes.

Now, it is possible that if you simply upload the video from your camcorder directly into YouTube, it might look fine. I don’t know, as I have not tried this, because I like to edit my videos before I upload them. But, as I said, any editing program I tried to use open up the video in a deformed manner. This is not a problem with my editing software. I have edited countless videos from countless different camcorders and digicams, and I have never had this problem. I searched the Internet to see if anyone else had this problem, and indeed, this problem was very common with Samsung’s low-end camcorders. Some people had figured out how to work around this problem, but the instructions for that seemed fairly involved and confusing, and frankly no one should have to jury rig the videos before they are usable!

For this reason, I am unable to recommend that any Mac users purchase this camcorder. If, however, Samsung’s engineers fix this problem, then I would give it 4 stars and recommend it for someone who wanted to take informal videos. As cheap cameras go, this would be a good one if not for the fatal resolution flaw.

I really wanted to like it, since the design of the camera itself is very nice and fairly well built. Having the 3 hour battery life and long record time is perfect for when you go on trips and may not be able to download to a computer or charge it often. The manual lens cover is also a pro to me, since you know it won’t stop working like the automatic ones can. The buttons are well placed and the menus are easy to navigate. The hand strap is ok, but could have been a bit better thought out. I do like the swivel grip, I could see that coming in handy once in a while. Now, on to what I didn’t like about it.

The video quality is my main complaint about this camera, but what can you expect from a lower end inexpensive camera. I went out and did a days worth of test filming, around the house, garden, pool, neighborhood, indoors, etc… It all looked really good on the camera’s screen, that is until I watched it on the computer. Everything was smashed down to 4:3 aspect ratio causing jagged lines throughout the video. From reading other reviews, I knew the camera wasn’t properly flagging the 16:9 videos. I installed the included “MediaShow” software that came with the camera, and downloaded the widescreen patch from their website. I opened the videos there, and re-saved them as 16:9, at that point, I could open them with any editing software(Sony Vegas in my case). The video quality was “ok” at best, but had that soft and cheap look to it. It’s fine for Youtubers, but I wanted just a little more out of a camcorder, which lead me to another camera.

When returning it to Costco, I found they had the Canon HF10 HD Camcorder for much less then it is selling anywhere else, plus it came with a memory card and nice carrying bag. I had read many good reviews about it on Amazon, so I decided to try it. It blows the Samsung away in everything from build quality (made in Japan, instead of China like the Samsung), better feel, better screen, better zoom (variable instead of fixed), the video quality is amazingly better, and the colors in the video are more vivid (CMOS instead of CCD).

Overall, this is a good beginner camera, as long as you know how to get the correct aspect ratio and aren’t expecting movie quality video. If you are looking for quality, look more into a bit more expensive HD camcorder, it’s well worth it.

HD cams have no come along now too but,with today’s economy it’s kind of hard to plunk down $500-$600 for a camcorder,especially if there’s a need to buy extra memory cards which can run close to $100 for some of the larger capacity ones. I almost went with the Sony Webbie MHS-CM1 HD Camcorder (Orange) because it was HD and fairly portable.But after doing a bit of research it was clear it was lacking in some important features I needed.So in the end it came between this and the Webbie and…this one won out.Even though many consider this among the higher end of “budget camcorders” it was,frankly at the highest possible end of my price range so despite the financial sacrifice I decided to give this a go. Like many cameras it has it’s pros and cons.

I’ll start by telling you about the pros and there are a whole lot of them. The camera is just perfect for hand held use,is lightweight and has an excellent,clear viewing screen. It gives you three zoom options:digital,optical and intelli-zoom function.I haven’t figured out what they all mean yet but the digital zoom anyway offers excellent,seamless zoom control.Their are a lot of menu opitions but once you understand them you can do an awful lot with this camcorder such as fade in and out of video,make films in B&B and sepia tone as well as color and there’s even a feature to upload directly to YouTube.For an SD camera the image quality is superb,easily DVD quality and if you have a newer HD TV you have the option of recording in a 16 by 9 HD screen format.

Another major advantage here is in addition to an SD/MMC memory card slot the camera features 16GB’s of built in memory.That means at it’s highest setting this camcorder can easily hold three hours worth of recording video. There are some people here who’ve complained about that not being enough internal memory.I don’t personally see how that is seeing that I have yet to record any videos that ammount up to that long a time and I usually upload them to computer very quickly before could happen.If your travelling access memory cards might be good depending on how much footage you intend to shoot but to be honest,the internal memory should be more then enough.

The batter time is great too:I was told that the charging time is 12 hrs but to be honest,the true charge time is not quite 5 hrs so that’s a HUGE advantage right there. There is of course another side to the coin regarding the cons,even if they’re subjective I suppose.As with most digital memory camcorders this records video in the MP4 format,meaning that it requires difficult to understand codecs to play in your average WMP or other media player. The accompanying Cyberlink mediashow software allows you to view videos without these complications. It also allows you to convert the MP4 files for play in other media devices such as WMP,but depending on the lengh the conversion process can take up to…say 2 hrs for half an hour worth of video.

Also with the software to record to DVD with it takes at least that long,if not more to burn to DVD so…using the mediashow softwhere might require several days of personel time for editing,converting and recording videos. This is an issue I am sure you can work around easily if you read the informative and lenghy PDF instruction manual this comes with-just plug in the CD,save it in your documents and you can consult it whenever you need it.In terms of practicality and ease of use,the pros of this camera easily outweigh any cons so I highly recommend this camcorder to anyone with serious budget issues who want a high quality digital camcorder that’s DVD quality and delivers reasonable images on an HD-TV.

The video is surprisingly stable and I had a much easier time getting clear shots with a minimum of shakiness. HD camcorders I’ve tried seem to require either a tripod or a surgeon’s precise and steady hand to get video that won’t give you motion sickness. I liked the overall video quality I got with this camera better as well. The advertized zoom features did not work well for me. In my experience with any camera the more you try to zoom the shakier it gets and this was really no different.

However I think image stability, video quality and ease of use outweigh the zoom issue. Low light conditions were not perfect, but I’ve seen higher end cameras with worse low-light results. It’s much easier to find features such as switching aspect ratios and lighting settings on the camera. It focuses on both still and moving objects quickly– again, much better than higher-end HD cameras I’ve tried.

As advertised, I think it’s perfect for You Tube videographers. Even though it does not shoot in HD, I think this is a great entry-level camera for beginners and experienced You Tubers alike. It feels sturdy and I’m not afraid to throw it in a bag and take it along with me wherever I go. I wish I could count on the lenscap closing, but overall this camera is a great value for what it does. If HD is not an issue or you just want to upload stuff to the internet this camera is fantastic.

The lens is very sharp on this camcorder and the zoom is amazing at 42x although I recommend a tripod for the best stabilization. The camcorder has improved its image stabilization which is good compared to previous models. There is also face detection which will help with focusing (up to 5 faces). The battery life claims to be 3 hours but I have not used it enough to test that out. Most likely its true as I have a previous model and the battery life was great. Noise reduction to help eliminate grain, helps a bit but not overly great. Low light still is just ok. I don’t know too many camcorders at this price level that do better.

There are different settings depending on what you will do with the video, example: if its for YouTube the camera has settings to compress and size the video for web. It also has normal and superfine resolution for dvd quality and tv viewing movies. One of the best features is that it has 16 gig memory built in. The previous model did NOT which was a bummer as you had to buy a memory card. I’m glad they added the internal memory! The only draw back is that if something happens to the camera, you might not be able to get your video out of it if there is a problem so using a memory card might still be safest.

The only complaint I have is that there is no auto open/close of the lens cover. Many other cams have this feature which is great because there are so many spontaneous moments and you have to fiddle with a lens or forget to open it and you miss the moment. Samsung needs to change this to auto open/close!!!

Its light enough for a pocket and for women to carry in their pocket books. Another little complaint is that there is no case or draw string pouch for added protection. You’ll want to get one of these as the camera scratches a bit, no not real easy but it does. It comes with an USB, RCA cables for connecting and the software disc. It also has a camera built in, not sure what the mega pixels are as I couldn’t find a mention of that but its probably like 2 or 3 at the most. Photos looked cell phone like, but in a pinch its nice to have.

This is a great first digital flash memory camcorder for the average user and will do a lot more then most people will need but its nice to know it can. Its budget friendly, lightweight and compact. Quality is good but in bright light and gets grainy in poor low light. Its DVD quality video not HD but does a decent job for the price.

-Take still shots simultaneously while shooting video
-Simple three mode operation minimizes menu hell
-Instant photo / record from Review mode ensures you can exit playback and resume shooting
-Better than average indoor and low light abilities w/o a flash, outperforms $1,000+ Canon’s and Sony’s for indoor clarity.

This is comparable to an entry level BMW with a cloth interior, it includes all of the genetic handling but lacks the luxury features in the more expensive models.

Those features along with some unexpected features makes it a decent choice in the sub $500 market, but the lack of a flash makes it illsuited for low light and some indoor scenarios.

This is a surprisingly featured camcorder with most of the intrinsic Samsung characteristics and the 16GB flash is twice the size of the more expensive 8GB Samsung SC-HMX20C 8GB High Definition Camcorder with 10x Optical Zoomthat sold last year for $1,000 and still commands $400+ despite no longer manufactured. Like most Vine recipients of the HMX20, I was recently offered the Samsung HMX-H104 HD SSD Flash Memory Camcorder w/16GB memory &10x Optical Zoom and with three Samsung’s it becomes obvious the quality features are genetic across the entire line.

+ The easy to use menus are wide and flat, meaning that Samsung menus typically begin with 16 choices but only a “yes” / “no” or “Feature ON” / “Feature Off” under each of those initial settings and you can breeze across the flat menus to find and change any setting. Some cameras like Nikon’s and Canon’s feel more like using a Blackberry when you have to open “Menu” then scroll to “Config”, next pick “Mode”…. you get my point. The best example of anecdotal menus is the WhiteBalance adjuster, most cameras let you adjust the WB with a scroll bar and forces you to experiment to determine how much / or less WB sensitivity is

+ Lightweight and easy to carry in your pocket, I carried the F34 inside a cargo pocket for a day of beach volleyball and hardly noticed it, this is significant since a Vado and it’s battery was enough to bruise my leg severely just running half marathon.

+ Timelapse mode if you want to shoot a rising moon and falling sun and the shots can be combined into a single compilation for artistic effects in case you decide to reshoot and improve The Truman Show The Truman Show (Special Collector’s Edition)movie ( a film that is rather decent already and difficult to improve upon but give it a try )

Timelapse mode is ultra configurable offering preset modes such as 1 shot per second and for defined periods of time such as 24 hours, it assumes most people aren’t fluent in math and also tally’s the total amount of time you’ll capture before confirming “OK”.

+ Enhanced modes with a real artistic feel, the Black & White mode has a grainier documentary style appearance like 16mm film used in the Blair Witch Project.

Most contemporary digital camera’s in BW mode are ultra sharp in quality and seem more like a Hollywood setup purposely shot in BW but ignores the intrinsic honesty, other modes such as embossed and “Art” mode aren’t found in other camcorders nor other Samsung’s.

+ One handed operation with thumb controls that work and Samsung’s EasyQ and iScene auto modes taking the guesswork out of automode exposures and part of the reason your tech hating dad can use it.

In case you’re already an initiated Samsung or other Camcorder owner, I’ll wrap up with comparisons and shortcomings compared to other devices you’re familiar with.

The F34 battery performs just as famously as other Samsungcorders and charges quickly and briskly, this is significant when taking it on vacation and you only get to steal a couple hours of hotel rest and recharge before the kids drag you back to the beach or to the Ferris wheel.

The LCD and grip swivels just as broadly, freely and easily as the more expensive Samsung’s and the matte finish beats $1,000+ corders with a traditional scratch prone glossy case. Samsung has improved their hand strap since the suede strap on the HMX20 and either is better than the torture strap included on the $1,000 Canon VIXIA HFS10 HD Dual Flash Memory with 32 GB Internal Memory and 10x Optical Zoom. Samsung didn’t skimp on the ergonomic “touch points” and used the same comfort strap and satin finsih on the expensive corders.

–Oddities, annoyances, HATES AND GRIPES !!!

Where’s the flash ?!?!?!!, even cell phone cameras include some kind crappy flash and other Samsung’s have a pop up or integrated flash / light inside the outer lens ring, but the F34 offers just a “night exposure mode” that isn’t night vision but grainy like ISO 3200 speed film and fairly useless. Samsungs always seem to perform well in low light and indoor settings but Samsung could’ve fit a flash into the housing like they’ve done with other camcorders.

Digital “IntelliZoom” is enabled by default and this is Samsung’s electronic zoom, it can be disabled but another reviewer echoed my sentiments on the matter and digital zoom has it’s merits when the exposure is shot at proper and higher res but is a task best left for after photo editing on a decent workstation.

Existing Samsung owners should be aware the F34 has a manual lens cover instead of the signature zipping iris on other models, but it has decent light and lens detection and will flash alerts to check / open the lens cover. There isn’t a remote and this seems like a reasonable omission for an inexpensive DV but notable enough to mention for a company that includes remotes as freely as if they’re AAA batteries.

Samsung’s reputation for scavenger hunt firmware updates, downloading updates can be annoying since links to files are often broken or will just link the visitor to the wrong page or back to the products FAQ, even worse are the undecipherable instructions that may even be incorrect or plainly confusing. Calling tech support is a waste of time better spent plucking nostril hair. Google or Amazon’s review page with end user / owner contributions is a better choice in solving bugs and interpreting bollock’d up instructions written by engineers.

I can’t say enough about this camcorder, don’t take my word for it, visit a WalMart to demo one for yourself (assuming they have a battery on hand to power it up) then compare the prices to Amazon / online sites and you’ll probably find Amazon’s prices competitive.

My unit’s lens cover had a hard time closing. This was at any angle and appears to be a persistent problem. I did not experience this with the MX20. This may be a new issue Samsung needs to address. Both units have good quality Schneider lenses with multiple coatings. It would be a bummer to have the lens get damaged because of a faulty cover.

Both units have swivel handles on the right side and have standard camera mounts. The difference between the 34x zoom of the SC-MX20, and the 42x of the SMX-F34 is negligible. Anti-shake helps the zoom focus better at longer ranges. The difference between the ranges just isn’t that impressive.

The boost in the SMX-F34’s internal memory eliminates the need for a memory card (I currently do not have one installed). A memory card makes transfers to external devices a snap, but isn’t necessary. Given the battery life, 16gb is more than enough even at higher resolutions.

The SMX-F34 has a `still images’ mode. Another addition is ‘time lapse’ which is the one I really wanted to try. This turned out to be something of a bummer.

When the camera is in use and plugged in – it does not charge. The time-lapse video I made lasted 7 minutes 39 seconds. I started it Tuesday morning and stopped it Wednesday night. When I unplugged the camera, it gave me a low battery warning and shut down. I checked the connection then tried making another time-lapse that lasted 24 hours. No, it didn’t work.

The 3 hour battery charge isn’t nearly enough to keep an overnight time lapse going. This was disappointing. I thought it might be possible to use the SMX-F34 as a short term surveillance camera. This is just not possible given the short battery life.

Still, given that the prices are similar, the SMX-F34 is the better buy due to the increased internal memory. Watch out for that faulty lens cover. This problem may not have been specific to my unit.

A further note:
I would encourage you to NOT skimp when choosing a tripod! At the higher magnification a tripod becomes necessary. Pick a good one. The one I used I purchased because it was light and cheap. It was supposed to be used to hold a pair of binoculars (10x), at 34x or 42x ev. It ended up slipping.

~Pros~
1. Size – smaller than a DV camera but larger than a Flip (I posted pictures above)
2. Intuitive Controls – Easy to operate – my 5 year old figured it out just fine
3. On board memory – 16 GB is plenty for something like 7 hours of video – plenty for a vacation
4. SD expansion slot – nice option, not sure how necessary, but happy not to have to lug around extra tapes
5. Quiet zoom – this is a pet peeve of mine
6. No problems with recognition on the Mac by iPhoto or iMovie, no extra software needed
7. Video and sound quality excellent at this price point
8. Time lapse video – my kids have some science experiments planned for this. I am not sure what I would do with it otherwise, but still – it is unexpected

~Cons~
1.Blurring – Zooming causes several seconds of blurring as camera tries to be intuitive – using face recognition does not fully help, this seemed to be a bigger problem in low light with a lot of clutter in the backdrop – I am taking off a star for this because in 2009 this should be better
2. Slow transfer time, large file sizes – the files from this camera were pretty long to load, there doesn’t seem to be a mass transport option/drive use like there is on the flip – this is where the SD cards would be very beneficial

Bottom line: This low cost camcorder has a lot of features in a small package. Sure you can do better if you want to pay more and lug around something 3 times the size. However, it would be perfect for average home video use. It will not replace your digital camera, nor should it. However, for video – it’s great.

One of the few serious players in camcorder circles, Samsung’s all new Intelli-Zoom takes users beyond the camcorder’s 34x optical zoom without the usual sacrifice in image quality. Packed with a 680K pixel CCD sensor, this system will deliver a clean resolution of 720×480. The SMX-F34 features a memory card slot for both SD & SDHC. This system is also packed with 16GB of internal flash memory.

The new image processor brings it on with higher quality video, 3-D Noise Reduction, and Face Detection for up to five subjects. One of the sweetest features of the SMX-F34 is the dedicated Photo Mode that allows owners to operate the camcorder as a digital camera. Images are captured in 800×600 resolution. Outdoors and in well lit areas, the end product was outstanding. Obviously missing is onboard flash/lighting. With that said and like all similar cameras,this unit does have its limitations indoors. However, this system can be tweaked to deliver some outstanding indoor images. A viable light source and a good tripod will make all the difference.

Controls are similar to the earlier model. USB,A/V, & power ports can be found under the flip cover located on the back of the camera. Battery compartment and SD/SDHC card slot are located on the bottom of the camera. Shooting mode & zoom control is located on top of the SMX-F34. Power and record buttons are located on the back of the unit. The microphone is located on the front and the speaker can be found on the left side of the camera.

With H.264 compression, users can record up to eight hours of standard definition video directly to the camcorder’s internal flash memory without having to rely on a SD/SDHC card. With the new onboard image processor, I noticed that power consumption is relatively lower then other systems that I have operated. On more then one occasion and on a single charge, I was able to record non stop video for over three hours. This great feature alone can be a life saver for those special occasions.

The SMX-F34 also allows added flexibility when it comes to zoom. A major improvement over earlier models is the Advanced Image Stabilization. With the help of a tripod even new camcorder owners can capture clear, stunning and colorful movies or photographs.

The Samsung SMX-F34 is packaged with an AC adapter/charger, hand grip strap, A/V cable, USB cable, 7.4V lithium ion battery, instruction CD and handy pocket guide. This unit is covered with a 12 months parts/3 months labor warranty, Toll Free phone support, and a detailed, consumer friendly website.

Without question, budget conscious video enthusiasts and YouTubers will enjoy all the bells and whistles of this outstanding camcorder. Once again, Samsung has stepped up to the plate and delivered. We have a winner.