Samsung HMX-H100 HD Flash Memory Camcorder with10x Optical Zoom

I actually bought this camera from another store that had a huge sale and saved a ton of money even with a 2 year warranty. I'm actually a college student majoring in visual communications. This camera easily transfers data from the camcorder or just using the SDHC cards directly inserted to any PC. The editing software is basic and not thrilling by any means. If your an average individual looking to slice and dice footage this camcorder is perfect for you. The files are saved as compressed .MP4s. If your looking for another level of editing such as myself using Premiere Pro or Final Cut, you must convert the files. Easiest way to achieve this is taking the .MP4s and upload them into Quick Time Pro 7 (can be downloaded for Macs or PCs). From Quick Time you have to save the files as .MOVs. If you do not do this loading the files in an editing program you will only be able to get the audio. As well Quick Time is 30 bucks and no need for expensive converting programs out there. As far as the audio is concerned it is excellent as the picture is. Wind can give you some trouble even with the wind screen, but what condensed internal mic doesn't? Comes with a nice touch screen and limited push buttons. Menu use is very easy and self explanatory. Fast hand movements do get a bit choppy if your recording in HD from the refresh rate. 8GB SDHC cards will give you approximately 61 minutes of record time on the highest settings. Charge time is very fast and on a full charge you will get about 75 minutes of straight recording time. You can also get some great Transcend SDHC cards for very cheap as well there is a very nice package deal for extra batteries and clothes. Like in the other reviews the only difference between this camcorder and the others in the HMX product line is the size of internal memory. So it's up to you if its worth getting a higher series that only carries more internal memory. That is about all I can think of discussing this camcorder. This is a great consumer camcorder and totally worth the 500+ you will be dishing out.

For the price of those nasty, digital-zoom, throw-away Flip cameras you can instead get this excellent camcorder with a surprising number of features and smooth 10x optical zoom. My observations exclude most of what other reviewers have already mentioned.

You can set most optical settings manually, like exposure, aperture, shutter, and focus. Processing-wise you can adjust white balance, resolution, and quality manually. If you just want to point-and-shoot you can press the "Easy Q" button and the camera will set these up for you. It even decides whether to turn on the anti-shake feature if you want it to. The anti-shake feature is the best I have ever seen and you're going to need it because this camera is so light there isn't enough weight ballast to steady your hand.

The camera does not move smoothly between lighting levels. I'm not sure if this is the aperture or the light sensitivity setting of the camera's sensor. You'll see the light level click up and down on scenes that subtly change brightness. If you're worried you can always set the aperture, exposure, and shutter speed manually and "fix it in post" as they say.

A word about the video format. The video files are standard MOV/MP4 files in H.264 with AAC audio. The 1080i videos play on anything fast enough to decode them, but remember, if your computer isn't fast enough to decode them, it's not going to work well. This camera uses many optional but highly CPU-intensive features of the MPEG-4 AVC H.264 specification like CABAC, VBSMC, QPEL, and more. Your computer has to be really fast and have enough memory to handle these features and your software must be able to decode these features, too. For example, The KMPlayer on MS Windows has trouble with videos produced by this camera because it doesn't implement some of these features correctly. However, Windows Media Player plays them perfectly. Similar problems happen on MacOS simply because these optional H.264 features aren't tested well there. You can try using a lower resolution or setting the "quality" of the recording to a lower setting where some of these features are omitted or used with less CPU-intensive parameters.

For storage, this camera only uses SDHC cards for storage so you're going to need a fast card. The camera comes with a "Class 6" card, therefore that should probably be a safe choice for any use. I have not yet run into problems with an HP-branded "Class 4" card I once bought by mistake with a huge discount. I expect that I will run into a problem in high-detail, high-action videos with a fast shutter speed, or in some situations that the "Easy Q" feature selects data-heavy modes for me. The user manual says that the camera will warn you if your card is too slow (the Class) and suggest to use a lower resolution. The camera is also, somehow, able to detect singleand multi-cell cards which I interpret to mean that some cards have one memory chip and others have two. I don't know how you discover this when shopping for cards. The manual says that if it finds a multi-cell card it says it restricts the speed but doesn't really say what happens. Likewise, if it finds a slow card (the "class") it will warn you to reduce the resolution, but the manual does not say what "Class" you're supposed to buy.

There are quite a few of these cameras in the refurbished market. My camera has no flaws and these are probably store returns from people whose home computers cannot play back the 1920x1080i videos that this camera, like other high-feature MPEG-4 AVC H.264 cameras, can create.

**EDIT** After a few months and several hours of recording this camera is still excellent. I still record everything at 1920x1080i and to edit that effectively it really means that I need a new computer. This isn't a knock on the camera, of course, but it's the only major complaint that I have.

The one minor complaint is that you have to essentially "restart" the camera to exchange SDHC cards--opening the door to change cards turns the camera completely off, so you probably want to get an SDHC card reader and use that instead of the camera to manage your SDHC cards.

Also, the SDHC cards must be formatted *by the camera* before they can be used. It only takes a few seconds but it does erase the card. It places two 20 megabyte files named "VIDEO0.IDX" and "VIDEO1.IDX" in the MISC directory which I believe is used for the quick access to review videos on the card from the camera's screen.

Finally, I did encounter a SDHC card that is multi-level cell. It is a Class 6, 8-gigabyte Patriot SDHC card. The camera warns me to switch to a lower resolution when using this card. Note that this is a Class 6 card, and the reason it's not fast enough is because it is a multi-level cell card. I have cheap Class 4 cards that work perfectly so this could be a potential problem when shopping for cards. I don't know how to identify multi-level cell cards at the point of sale but I do have one such card that won't work with this camera.

Buy Samsung HMX-H100 HD Flash Memory Camcorder with10x Optical Zoom Now

First, I want to put a few things clear before making this review.

In consumer digital camera world we have to understand the two different technologies used in picking the video image. They are CCD and CMOS. They stand for Charge Coupled Device and Complimentary Metal Oxide Semiconductor respectively. How they work is not relevant but the pros and cons of each one is.

CCDs are being used in digital cameras for a long time. They are very sensitive to light but they are difficult to manufacture and therefore expensive. In the other hand we have CMOS, they are cheap to manufacture but they are less sensitive to light and have higher noise figures than CCDs.

Now that we have a clear understanding of CCDs vs CMOS, I can talk about the Samsung HMX-H100.

I like to call it "in a class by itself" because in the $449 price range there is no other camera with such features, quality in construction and performance. It have a very good 10x optical zoom with optical image stabilization , nice color rendering, Good picture definition, and acceptable battery life. Of course you could have slight improvement in low light performance in a CMOS Canon or Sony but you have to spend another $300 to $400 to get it. Or if you want the top in low light picture quality, be ready to say good bye to over $2000 out of your wallet for a 3CCDs Canon, Sony or JVC Pro Grade camcorder

Battery life is good for some 55 to 65 minutes of full HD 1080i recording. So an extra battery is a must.

With memory prices going down by the week, it is not a problem to get a good deal on a couple of 16gb SDHC Class 4 cards. One 16gb SDHC is good for over two hours of recording in full 1080i super fine HD.

Another interesting thing about it, is that it carries a copy Samsung Intelli-Studio editing software inside it. Just connect the camcorder via USB to any Windows PC and it ask for software installation. No more software CDs getting lost in your desk, camera bag or laptop case. Its already inside the camcorder!

In conclusion. There are lot of good to excellent consumer camcorders out there. But in the $449 price range IMHO there is only one... the Samsung HMX-H100

Read Best Reviews of Samsung HMX-H100 HD Flash Memory Camcorder with10x Optical Zoom Here

I picked this camera up at Fry's, but a model with built-in SSD, to shoot my sister's wedding last minute.

My favorite things, after trying a fistful of HD camcorders:

Fantastic image. Quality of video rivals Canon.

Hands down the BEST anti-shake feature I've seen in this price range. Canon isn't even remotely close.

Easy to use

The bad:

Small internal battery, one size only. OK lifespan, but I prefer something external like Canon's, you can buy a bigger size and clip it on still.

It doesn't handle low light. Very few of these do well in indoors or low light, though. My sister's wedding was at sunset, once the sun was down, the video was bad. The best low-light performance I've seen was in a Sanyo, but the video quality was terrible in comparison.

While the screen menu is easy to use (touchscreen a nice bonus), some features, like activating a backlit mode, you don't want to have to dig through a menu to get to.

Focus speed was slower than I like, but perhaps that was due to the low light.

Samsung advertised that this could do 1080 60i or 30p, that is a flat out lie. There is no 30p feature on this machine, at least not at 1080.

If you need something easy, handy, that produces great images, and you don't need all the features a Canon can offer, this is it!

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I have been using the Samsung HMX H100 for about a month now, and it performs quite well. Very easy to use with touch screen menus and controls that are very intuitive. It has a number of manual controls, but using it as a point and shoot camcorder yields excellent results. Optical stabilization works well, 10X zoom is clear, as is the macro mode. One big surprise to me was how detailed the time lapse video can be-really amazing! Auto focus is a bit slow at times, but so far has not been an issue when recording video even in a sailplane flying at 80 knots, where the focus can change often.

I am very pleased at the quality of the video this small camcorder can produce. I have been using Cyberlink PowerDirector Ultra video editing program to load, edit, and record to DVD using an old DVD burner I have had in my computer for about 5 years. It also allows auto uploads to You Tube. With the Cyberlink software there is no need to convert the native files the H100 produces. I have tried most if not all of the popular editing programs, and only Corel Video Studio Pro X2 required a conversion to load. Intelli-Studio, a "lite" type editing program, that comes with the H100, easily converted the H.264 files to a usable format.

If you are not a videophile needing a top of the line HD Camcorder for professional use, the Samsung HMX H100 will probably suit your needs. I am very pleased with the quality of the videos this small camcorder can produce.