(1) HMX20C Camera
Signal Type
Signal Type : NTSC
Image Sensor
Sensor Type : CMOS
Sensor Size : 1/1.8"
No. of pixels : 6.4 M
Lens
F Value : F1.8 ~ 2.5
Optical Zoom : 10x
Digital Zoom : 100x
Filter Diameter : 49 mm
Type : HD lens
Display
Main Screen
Device Type : touch LCD
Size : 2.7"
No. of pixels : 230 K
Flash
Flash : built-in
Video Recording Feature
Video Spec.
Recording Format : H.264
Recording Resolution : HD: 1920 x 1080i (60i / 30p), SD: 720 x 480
Recording Quality : super fine / fine / normal
Shutter Speed
Manual Shutter : Yes
Auto : Yes
Slow Shutter Mode (LSS) : Super C. Nite
Image Stabilizer : Yes (EIS)
Focus
Manual Focus : Yes
Power Night Capture : No
Video Still Capture : Yes (Unlimited Dual Recording)
Back Light compensation : Yes
Low Light Sensitivity : 1 Lux (Color Nite mode)
White Balance
Manual : Yes
Audio Format : AAC
No. of Channel : 2 ch
Speaker : Yes (built-in)
Volume Adjust : Yes
Built-in Microphone : Yes
Wind Filter(WindCut Plus) : Yes
Real Stereo : Yes
Audio Effect
Music : No
Echo : No
Audio Dub : No
Operation
Play/Still : Yes
Stop : Yes
FF/FPS : Yes
REW/RPS : Yes
Line Recording : No
Slow Motion : Yes (1/2, 1/4, 1/8)
Slide Show : Yes (music slide show)
Still Imaging Feature
Still Image
Format : JPEG
Resolution : 3264 x 2448 (8 M interpolation), 2304 x 1728 (4 M), 3 M, 1.5 M, 340 K
Quality : super fine
Recordable Media : Flash memory
Interface
PC
USB : Yes (USB 2.0)
IEEE 1394 : No
Video
Composite : Yes
S-Video : Yes
Component : Yes
HDMI : Yes
Audio
Ear Phone Jack : No
Memory Card
Card Slot : Yes (SDHC / MMC+)
Memory Application
Memory Application
Compatible Card : SDHC / MMC+
Built-in Memory : 8 GB
USB Application
Motion Picture Stre
Format : No
Resolution : No
PC Camera : No
External Storage : Yes
Direct Print System
DPOF : Yes
PictBridge : Yes
S/W and PC OS
OS
Compatible OS : Windows Vista or XP (Windows XP Service Pack 2)
Bundle PC S/W 1 : Cyber Link DVD Suite
Accessory
Power
Ac Adaptor/Charger : Yes
AC Cord : No
Battery Pack : Yes (IA-BP85ST)
Strap
Hand Grip : Yes
Case
Carrying Case : Yes (pouch)
Cable
A/V Cable : Yes
USB Cable : Yes
Others
Remote Control : Yes
Instruction Book : Yes
Pocket Guide : optional
Power
Power Supply Type : 7.4 V / 850 mAh
Power Consumption : LCD on, VF off - 4.1 W
Cell Material : lithium polymer
Model No. : IA-BP85ST
Shape Type : slot-in type
Running Time (For This Model) : 1.5 h
Dimension & Weight
Net Dimension : 2.60" x 2.65" x 5.47"
Net Weight : 1.01 lb
Other Feature
PB Zoom : No
Worldwide AV Output : No
Others
Indicator
Power LED : Yes
Tally Lamp : Yes
Recharging Indicator : Yes
Function key LED : No
AF Assist Lamp : No
Disc Access Lamp : No
Lens Cover : Yes (built-in)
Charging in working : No
Color Variation : black
Features:From a design point of view, the HMX20C follows much the same design that many other manufacturers are starting to use for their flash based camcorders. It's essentially a long cylindrical-looking body with a large fold-out widescreen on the left side. With a touchscreen interface just like the HMX10A we previously reviewed, the absence of many buttons is a feature that's quick to notice.
The large lens at the front will certainly be the eyecandy of the HMX20C camera because it's quite a bit larger than the HMX10A's lens. It's a full 1080p 6.4MP High Definition CMOS sensor. At the top of the large plastic ring around the lens is a pop-up flash for when the camera is in photograph mode (in which it is a 4MP still camera). I would have liked to have seen this traditional flash style replaced with an LED flash, this way it could double as a video light too (using a traditional flash as a video light will burn up the internal gases too fast and also create too much heat for the electronics around it). The lens is capable of 10x optical zoom and 10x digital zoom. Using the two together, you can effectively have 100x of digital zoom to get right up close to the action. Luckily it has image stabilization to try and cut down on how shaky the video can get when you use extreme amounts of digital zoom. If you're recording outside, there's also a wind cut feature as well. The lens cover is built in and will automatically close when the camera is either powered off or switched into playback mode. This is handy and saves you having to remember to take off a plastic lens cap and store it somewhere while filming.
The HMX20C captures in H.264 format which you should be able to playback and edit in most popular video editing programs. For those wanting space over quality, you don't have to record in 1080 resolution; you can back it down to 720 if you'd like to make the most of your memory space. You can also choose between normal, fine and super-fine quality settings for each resolution; again, this will help fit even more video on the camera's memory but at the cost of some quality. Both shutter control and focus can be controlled manually. The slow-shutter mode will allow you to capture night-shots by allowing more light into the shutter, so be careful to avoid fast movements when in this mode. Audio is captured in 2-channel stereo AAC format and there is also an option to plug in an external mic (often used to better the quality of the sound you're recording).The built-in flash memory on the HMX20C is 8gb, which is room for a little under 90 minutes of video at the highest quality. Supporting SDHC and MMC+ memory expansion, you can add up to a 32gb card into the HMX20C for an unreal amount of recording time. Make sure you bring a charger along though because if you expand the memory too much, you're likely to run out of battery power before you run out of recording space! The battery has an approximate run time of 1.5hrs on a full charge. Both battery pack and expandable memory cards go in a pop-up door at the back of the camera (illustrated in the photo below). Above this door you can see the mode-switch button, the corresponding mode is indicated via LED above it.
Taking a look at the fold-out viewfinder mentioned earlier, you'll see that all the camera's major functions are easy to access via touchscreen menus. Right on the screen itself is the main menu button which appears in all the camera's modes. This allows you to edit all the settings of the current mode as well as overall camera settings. For quick access to the important ones, such as shutter speed, focusing, white balance, etc. there is a Q.Menu button to the left of the viewfinderscreen that brings up a large six-button menu to adjust these items. Below this Q.Menu button is a secondary zoom button and record button. Although my instinct is to use the ones right on the camera body, I suppose that some people will enjoy having these secondary ones easily accessible with their other hand. Although this touchscreen did collect fingerprints, they weren't noticeable enough to be seen when it was powered up with am image on it.
Swinging over to the right side of the camera, it's easy to see the greatly improved upon swivel handgrip. In the HMX10A review I complimented Samsung on the usefulness of this swivel grip, especially for the filming of sports and action video. However, my gripe with that camera was that the handstrap was made of a really hard and solid material which was not comfortable on the hand for extended periods of time. I was happy to see this strap is now a very suede-like material on the HMX20C.
The included dock allows easy access to DC power, USB, Component/AV output and HDMI output. I was disappointed to see that the HMX20C did not have an HDMI output integrated directly into it as the HMX10A did. For those wanting to display their 1080p movies to someone else when not at home, having to carry a dock and AC adapter along with them may not always be a viable option. The HDMI port supports Samsung's Anynet+ capabilities. This is an HDMI technology used in all new Samsung products that allows any Samsung compatible remote to control any devices supporting this option. For those building a Samsung-based home theatre solution, you will see the most benefit from this nice little capability.
If you think you recognize the included remote, you do. This is the same model of remote that we saw with the HMX10A.
Installation:
The included software with the HMX20C is the Cyberlink DVD Suite. For people who don't already own editing software, this will get you going into making your own great videos. More advanced users will likely own their own software already to use with this camera.
Testing:Looking deeper at the body design of this camera made me question one thing, something I later found out has been questioned by other reviewers as well; why is every plug except the dock plug covered? We all know that if this dock plug gets damaged or wet and fails that a lot of important functionality would be lost, especially the HDMI abilities which are now only available on the dock (HMX10A had HDMI on the camera too). I liked the slide-cover design on the USB and component/AV connections so why not incorporate something like that onto this critical dock plug too? My minor personal beef with another part of the design was the mode selection switch. Since you have to wait for each mode to fully initialize before switching to the next, it would seem more practical to install a small switch so I can easily jump from mode 1, video recording, to mode 3, playback, without the delay. Other than that, I had no major complaints in the general design of this camera.
Taking a look at the video mode did leave me very impressed. I could jump right into things if I wanted, or spend time tweaking advanced settings, and I was happy with the end result either way. I give Samsung kudos on the Q.Menu. Once I got used to this little button it made many adjustments and tweaks a lot faster. For those looking for point-and-shoot simplicity, enable EasyQ. This function will lock out all those advanced menus so you can have simple high-definition videos without all the confusion of mucking around with settings menus. Connecting the camera to my computer to offload the video showed me two new removable drives; one for the camera's internal memory and one for the memory card slot. After checking out a few videos I made, I was left thoroughly impressed with the quality. Let me point out one thing I did start to notice with this camera compared to the HMX10C and SC-X210L cameras I compared it against. The focal length on the new HMX20C seems to be almost a tad longer than it should be for close-quarter filming. Outdoors and in large rooms it's fine and you probably won't even notice this. However, when I set a few objects on my desk and put the HMX20C up against another camera on the same point, the 20C left more of the desk cut off than the other contenders. How much you will notice this will greatly depend on the type of filming you do and how you operate your camera. If you take a few steps back, it's just as good as any other camera in this regards. You just may not be able to film some things quite as close if you want to fit a lot into your frame.
Switching over to camera mode and snapping a few shots, I was also left quite happy. This camera has a great improvement in picture quality over the HMX10A, and it was very noticeable. I was glad to see the integration of a flash into the HMX20C which certainly takes this still camera another step up over the HMX10A. In both poor light (where flash had to be used) and good natural light, the pictures certainly turned out great for being a 4MP camera. Keep in mind it's obviously not going to match up to a modern 7+MP digital camera, but it's not bad either. Check out my shots below to see what I mean. I'm happy to see that Samsung has incorporated a lot of feature control into the still photo mode as well. It does a great job of mimiking a basic digital photo camera when it comes to the settings. As I always say with digital video cameras though, buy them first for the video quality because that will be your main reason for buying them. The picture quality is simply a nice extra. Most people own a good digital camera these days anyway's, especially those looking to buy a good digital video camera.Below you will see a downsized photograph I took with the HMX20C. Due to image size and bandwidth usage, I only altered the resolution of this picture.
Overall, I was incredibly pleased with the Samsung HMX20C. Just like any camera, it has a huge list of ups and of course a few downs as well. How you take these pros and cons will completely depend on how you plan to use this camera. It's very likely that many will never even come across a con to complain about. I was incredibly happy with the excellent quality videos I achieved while recording with the HMX20C. The still picture capture has improved leaps and bounds over the older HMX10A we've previously reviewed here and left me very happy with the quality of pictures it can now achieve. Although the camera is littered full of advanced functions and adjustments, Samsung has still kept everyone in mind and added features like EasyQ and some simple on-camera splicing abilities to accommodate even the most novice of users. I can say I was happy enough with the HMX20C that I am now quite seriously considering purchasing one for me after my review unit [sadly] goes back. If you're in the market for a solid high definition video camera for your money, I highly encourage playing around with the Samsung HMX20C at your local electronics/camera store.
Pros: Excellent quality 1080p videosPicture quality is certainly good for 4 megapixelsMounts just like a removable drive to access your videos on your PCHand strap is a comfort improvement over the HMX10APlenty of settings and adjustments for both video and photo modesSimple on-camera splicing and fading ability will allow novice users to make good looking videos without the PC editing hassleCons: Lens focal length might be bothersome for some users (and some may never notice it too) Lack of HDMI port right on the cameraWait, where is my HDMI cable?
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