Samsung HMX-R10 HD review – Lots of shooting features

Sum and Substance:

Thumbs Up:

Compact design

Thumbs Down:

No protection over the lens, touch screen controls are difficult to use, low light video has plenty of noise, exteriors are slippery, lacks headphone/mic jacks and accessory shoe.

The Whiz Kid Speaks:

Samsung HMX-R10 HD is a 1080i camcorder which has 100x digital zoom, optical sensor size is 1/2.33”, optical sensor type is CMOS, videos are stored in H.264 format. Minimum shutter speed is 1/60 second, maximum shutter speed is 1/10000 second. White balance options include Cutom, Automatic, Preset. Camcorder sensor resolution is 9.15 megapixels, effective video resolution is 5.3 megapixels, effective still resolution is 9 megapixels, interpolated still resolution is 12 megapixels. Images are stored in JPEG format.

The camcorder has Zoom lens – 6.8 mm – 34 mm – F/3.5-3.7 with focal length of 6.8 mm – 34 mm. Lens aperture is F/3.5-3.7. Optical zoom is 5x. Minimum focal length is 6.8mm, maximum focal length is 34 mm. Additional features include DPOF support, built in speaker, touch screen control, interval shooting mode, direct print, PictBridge support, backlight compensation, and still capture while recording videos.

The display is 2.7 inches big. Connectors include 1x HDMI output, 1x Composite video/audio output, 1x Component/video output, 1x USB.

Razzle Dazzle:

Design of the Samsung HMX-R10 HD is attractive. The body is capsule shaped and you get options of blue or black. You will quickly notice the lens which is different from other camcorders. The design of the device might need some acclimation to get used to it and we thought this was much better than other camcorders. There is only a wrist strap on the camcorder, you don’t get the standard hand strap.

Inside Dope:

Samsung camcorders may not be as good as JVC, Panasonic, Sony and Canon with the quality but the manufacturer is trying hard to make a good impression. Its latest attempt at this is the HMX-R10 HD which is compact in size and is reasonably priced for the full HD camcorder category. It gives you variety of shooting features and to make wearing the camcorder a bit more comfortable, Samsung angles the camcorders lens at twenty five degrees in order to relieve your wrist strain. If you are comfortable shooting this way then all is well but we would recommend you to check it out before you buy it. In all, the Samsung HMX-R10 HD is a good point and shoot camcorder, the quality may not be as good as prosumer units but is definitely better than pocket mini camcorders.

We had mixed thoughts about the controls, they weren’t good but didn’t feel that bad either. On the top of the Samsung HMX-R10 HD there is a shutter release button and nothing else. Back of the camcorder houses a Mode key which lets you switch between video or still mode. Apart from that there is also a record key and zoom rocker for the 5x zoom (optical). Below these there is a panel which contains mini-HDMI port, proprietary AV/USB ports and DC in. Smaller hands might struggle to reach to these keys but people with large hands will have no problem. We would have liked the zoom rocker somewhere near the top.

Samsung HMX-R10 HD’s quality of video though not excellent, is good for this class. Performance was the best in 1080/60i mode and if you are looking for consistency, we will recommend you the 720/60p res. 1080/30p resolution had the worst video quality, the clips looked jittery and choppy. The videos were almost non-watchable here.

The Samsung HMX-R10 HD has a 2.7 inch touch screen which gives you another set of controls for zoom and record. The touch screen can be used to change the settings which include focus, aperture and shutter speed. The screen lags a bit, didn’t respond as fast as we would like and you cannot calibrate the screen either.

The bottom of the device has compartments for memory and battery. There is no internal storage option so you will have to use a SD/SDHC memory card. The covered compartment doesn’t let you put in a longer life and larger battery pack. You won’t need a bigger battery anyways because this battery has plenty of juice. You cannot use the in built flash on the front of the device for video light. There are no jacks for headphones and external mic and neither is there an accessory shoe. This doesn’t surprise us much in a midlevel camcorder like this but still it is worth noting. However the lack of lens protection is surprising. Samsung HMX-R10 HD comes with a protective case to carry but in no way does this make up for the absence of lens.

We were pleasantly surprised at the a mid range HD camcorder like Samsung HMX-R10 HD gave us such good options for shooting. There are four separate HD modes to choose from which include 1080/60i (superfine quality), 1080/30p, 1080/60i (normal quality) and 720/60p. We have seen this in previous models too but still it is nice to see it here. For interval shoots, there are options of recoding every 1,5,3,15,10 or 30 seconds for 24, 72 or 48 hours to till you fill-up your memory. High speed video can be captured at 600 or 300 fps for resolutions 192×108 and 416×240 respectively. The camcorder has manual focus along with shutter speed and aperture priority modes but this is more of a point-and-shoot camera.

Samsung HMX-R10 HD’s color performance was as good as other camcorders in this class. Colors were a bit faded and you can’t fiddle with the options (because there aren’t any) if you want a vivid picture. Auto white balance is consistent and you get presets and manual options for this. 1080/60i gave us smoother quality but we could still see artifacts as well as trailing. We will recommend you 720/60p mode for best results.

Photo quality of the camcorder is better than what we have seen previously for this price range but we cannot recommend this as a substitute for a digi-cam. Samsung says that the HMX-R10 HD has a 12 MP res. for pictures it is interpolated, native res. is 9 MP. You can also click photos while shooting videos but you will have to go with video resolution for this. You cannot make separate settings for photo resolution.

Nitty Gritty:

Samsung HMX-R10 HD is a good alternative to a minicamcorder if you can afford to spend a bit more. But we are skeptical of the design, try this on first before you make the purchase.

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