Samsung SMX-C10 Touch of Color Camcorder with 10x Optical Zoom
March 15th, 2010 Posted in Camcorders
- Features Samsung’s unique Active Angle Lens
- 10x optical zoom paired with Hyper Image Stabilization to help reduce blurry footage
- Edit or share videos from anywhere with intelli-studio program
- Stylish Touch of Color (ToC) finish
- Capture video to SD/SDHC memory cards (not included); recharge the battery via AC adapter or USB
Product Description
The Samsung SMX-C10 is ideal for those on the go, and offers an impressive 10x optical zoom paired with Hyper Image Stabilization to help reduce blurry footage. It features a 230,000-dot, swiveling 2.7-inch wide LCD scre… More >>
Samsung SMX-C10 Touch of Color Camcorder with 10x Optical Zoom
March 15th, 2010 at 11:11 am
I bought this for a vacation, I wanted something, light, portable and easy to use, moreover something with a good battery life.
I have been very impressed so far with the Samsung in every way. It’s tiny, but the most used buttons are easy to use and operate even with big hands, and are duplicated on the menu flip out screen and on the unit top itself.
There’s No internal memory, which I did not mind, why do I need 32MB of internal when I can slip in an 8GB or 16GB SDHC or regular SD card? [both work fine by the way].
Recording in H.264 codec enables the SAMSUNG C10 to capture up to 6 hrs. and 20 min. of high quality video footage on a 16GB SD card, 3 hrs 10 min on an 8GB card and so on. Phenomenal 160 minute battery life is enabled by the efficient power use of the 8th Generation DSP Chip and H.264 codec recording, much better than most of it’s competitors in this price range.
Picture is crystal clear on built in 2.7″ viewer and very clear and crisp on playback on a TV or computer. I have not had the camera long so have not had time to fully evaluate the software and other features.
One thing I love is that the lens is tilted up 25 degrees so you don’t get “wrist lock” trying to get that perfect shot, it will pan and scan with a much more comfortable hand position. Not perfect by any means, but for under $200 I’m impressed.
PRO’s
Very easy to use
Lightweight
Very compact
Rechargable battery
10x Optical Zoom
A ton of auto and changeable features for full control
Can be charged via AC adapter OR USB
Software runs directly off the camera, so no need to edit on a PC or you choose not to
CONS
No Flash (even though it has a low light setting which is reasonable)
No Camera or Still picture function (just video only)
No internal memory
Rating: 4 / 5
March 15th, 2010 at 12:48 pm
I picked this up a few days ago as it was on sale everywhere, which was nice considering I’d been debating between this and a Sony Webbie for awhile now. The Webbie lost due to price, and the 20-whatever minute recording limit.
Out of the box, extremely easy to use. Anyone that can’t figure this out WITHOUT the manual has no business touching electronics, I’m sorry. The manual is pictures, no words – if that gives you some idea how simple it is to use. It charged up in about 30 minutes, took some play around videos that night in the living room (no overhead lighting – lamp/tv/fish tank is all the light it has) and it did fine, so I can’t quite get with the bad low lighting shooting comments. There is no light so night-time shooting is probably out, obviously. The zoom is fantastic, I went max zoom on some of my 1″ fish from across the room, no blurriness at all.
The playback is great, I love that you can flip the screen around and fold it back in during watching, with an convenient rewind button right next to it. It is extremely light and small – can easily be carried in a pocket. Fits the hand well, with both the record and zoom buttons in convenient finger positions. The tilted lens profile is much easier on the wrist for extended shooting.
Now, the real test was Thanksgiving. Shot around the house some, but took it outside when after dinner we toss around the pigskin. This thing shot great video, could zoom in on people as they were making the catch (we were running slant routes, giving it some on-the-move action opportunities). I got great footage of someone getting a football to the side of the face from 20 yards out, which is already an instant family classic. Took it into direct sunlight, and with sunlight behind me – could still easily see the LCD. Only twice during the hour+ of filming did it lose focus for a second or two on someone running while I zoomed in – but fixed quickly. And unless some of you are secretly M Night Shyamalan I think people would manage this with a much more expensive camcorder.
No internal storage is a bummer, but if you want that you should be buying the C14 anyways. Buy a memory card, theyre cheap. No lens cover is questionable but not necessary. As said before – no light so don’t expect to make the next Cloverfield.
All in all – for $150 you will be hard pressed to find a sleeker and better performing camera. Aside from David’s axe-to-grind nonsensical reviews (which he spammed onto several sites the same night) most of the reviews were helpful and made me lean towards this, and I’m glad I did. Yea, Id recommend it to a friend..2 family members are buying one before the sale is up after seeing this thing in action.
Rating: 4 / 5
March 15th, 2010 at 2:25 pm
I have to preface this by saying I just received the camcorder today so I am still learning the functions.
Video quality seems to be perfectly fine to me. In bright light the colors look very vibrant and true to life. In dim light things are a little less colorful as you would expect. There are a multitude of scene modes which should really help if you take the time to set the right one for the conditions you are in. There is a setting for very low light conditions; a setting for back lighting, spot lighting, sports/fast motion, fountains/waterfalls, fluorescent light, tungsten… and on and on. There is also a setting for the exposure if you need to manually override the camera. You can also focus manually if necessary and there is a face detection mode. If you whip the thing around it will have a hard time focusing. The key is to make slow movements of the camera and hold a second or two if necessary to allow the auto focus to do its thing.
This device is light as a feather and it is tiny. It fits comfortably in the hand. The angled lens takes a little getting used to. Out of the box the battery is very fast to charge.
The time lapse recording feature is very cool and is something I can definitely see myself playing around with quite a lot.
The built-in studio software seems to work fine. I don’t plan to do lots of intensive editing. I had some trouble getting the software to download to my desktop PC but the laptop had no issues.
My biggest issues at the moment are that it appears the camera does not save all of your settings and reverts back to some default states every time you turn it on. This is quite annoying as you have to go back into all of the menus to set everything up each time. Some things do stay on like scene mode selection or image stabilization but other things like the fader selection revert back to off. Not sure why it doesn’t save everything as you leave it.
The other issue is that digital zoom only operates when you have the image stabilizer turned off.
This one does not have still photo capability. You need to upgrade to the C14 if that is important to you.
I really wish it had a lens cover. I can see lots of fingerprints ending up there.
I am very excited to have this thing and look forward to taking lots of video on my upcoming trip to Asia.
Rating: 4 / 5
March 15th, 2010 at 4:01 pm
If Poetmaster found the image quality “clear and crisp” then I might’ve gotten a defective camera. Even at the finest setting, the image quality was blurry and desaturated. It lacked contrast even outside. Sure, the video on the LCD panel looked great but not so on the monitor. In auto focus mode, it had a hard time focusing when you were walking around SLOWLY. In “Web Fine” mode, the playback was suffering from severe tearing (on a quad core/3GHz/4G ram PC).
Even at a 100W light bulb, the image was dark and grainy, compared to a $200 digital camera, which took nice and contrasty videos.
The UI and controls are nice, and well laid out (for my personal taste). You can drag the videos directly from the camera to your desktop and play them with either QuickTime, DivX player 7 ([...]).
Somehow I expected a dedicated camcorder to take better videos then a digital camera of the same price, that just happens to have video recording capability.
I didn’t bought it from Amazon, but returned it to the store the next day because of the bad image quality. If you considering buying one at your local store, I recommend to take an SDHC card with you, place it into the store demo unit and make some shots. Then at home look at it. If you like it, buy it.
Rating: 2 / 5
March 15th, 2010 at 7:00 pm
I just received this camera today and have had a lot of fun playing around with it. I am NOT a techie, so this is not going to be a spec-filled review. These are just my first impressions.
Pros:
-Intuitive and very easy to use. I hardly looked at the setup instructions and was able to record and play back without any difficulty.
-The slanted lens means you can hold the camera at an angle rather than horizontal. It seems pretty comfortable to hold for short periods of time, though I wouldn’t want to film for very long stretches.
-It’s tiny and cute.
-The zoom works well and is clear.
-The price was great– I got it for $140.
-Battery life is very good.
-Not a lot of components to mess around with, just the camera, memory card, charger cord, USB cord, and a cord to hook up to the TV which I haven’t tried yet.
Cons:
-I DID eventually get it to work with my Mac (I’m running OS X 10.5), but it took some doing. The computer didn’t recognize the camera the first time I plugged in the USB. The intellistudio icon did show up on the desktop, but I wasn’t able to open any of its components (this was expected). After I turned the camera off and back on I saw a disk icon on the desktop as well. I was then able to open up iMovie and upload directly to iMovie. It’s not perfect, but it seems to work decently. I wasn’t expecting it to be perfect with Mac, so this wasn’t a real shock.
-I do like the angle of the lens, but it’s a little weird to hold, and I wish it had a traditional hand strap as it feels a little shaky after more than a couple of minutes. Anything longer than 5 min or so and I’ll probably use a tripod.
-Low light filming seems pretty poor.
Overall, it’s a cute and fun camera. I’m not overly thrilled with it, but it’s fun and seems like it will work out fine for filming my children and cats, which is probably all I’ll use it for.
Rating: 3 / 5