2/03/2011

Samsung SMX-C20 Ultra Compact "Touch of Color" Camcorder with 10x Optical Zoom (Red) Review

Samsung SMX-C20 Ultra Compact 'Touch of Color' Camcorder with 10x Optical Zoom
Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)
I previously owned a hard drive based Sony Handycam. The camera died (out of warranty) so I searched for another. I thought i'd go for a lower price point this time around since I would be using this primarily to shoot casual videos of my daughters. This was around half the price of a Sony or Canon. I should have stuck with Sony because boy did I get burned.

I was expecting a lower quality product but there are many things working against this unit here.

The biggest problem with this camera is the videos do not end up encoded in the proper 16:9 widescreen ratio. This seems to be a problem with other lower end Samsung cameras (the MX-20 has the biggest complaints about this online) and if I would have known this ahead of time I would have stayed clear. The camera records the video in 720x480. This is widescreen and looks fine on the camera. The minute you plug it in to your TV or play the file on the computer you will notice the black bars on the side. The video is actually in 3:2 ratio!!! This is a bug in Samsungs encoding. Search for Samsung widescreen camcorder problem and you will find it. I found this unacceptable and false advertising (Samsung asserts widescreen and I was told personally it will "fill the screen and won't have any black bars on a widescreen tv" from a rep.)

If that wasn't enough of a reason to send it back, there is the quality of the actual camera. The buttons are very cheap. Everything has a fragile/plastic feel. The LCD doesn't even swivel smoothly. You really have to press the record button hard(and the power button) for it to function and it feels like you are going to break it. I knew this product was a lower end product but I still expected some semblance of quality from Samsung (I love their TV's and appliances). The lens of the camera has no cover as well.

The quality of the video is low to decent. Very basic settings and function.

What did I like about it? Well the color of the camera itself is nice and I like the angle/ergonomic concept of it's design. The timelapse option is a good idea but since I am sending this back after a few days, I didn't even get a chance to try it.

I research a lot before buying and unfortunately this camera is very new and not a lot of people are talking about it. Even if the widescreen issue doesn't bother you i'd still recommend looking into another brand (Sony, Canon) who have better build quality. I'm going back to Sony after I return this.

I hope this helps others when making the purchasing decision for a camcorder.

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Product Description:
The SMX-C20 from Samsung brings you a lot of bang for your buck! For under 200 dollars, you get a convenient SD camcorder with a 10x optical zoom and 2.7" viewscreen. But the SMX-C20 also offers easy one-touch uploading to YouTube and Flickr from any PC, no software required, among other convenient features.

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