The unique selling point of this camcorder from Samsung has to be the storage capacity. SMX-F34 has 16 GB of internal memory and you can further expand it through SDHC card. It has a host of manual shooting controls that you rarely find it such compact cameras and the lens is capable of 34x zoom. On the downside, this product from Samsung doesn’t give good quality of videos. Speaking of controls, the F34 has a zoom rocker, mode button which has options of playback, photos and music and shutter release which is used for still capture (but not for recording movies). Connection ports include miniUSB port, DC power input and 3.5 mm AV jack. There is a big record button and spring based power button next to the cover of the jack. The SDHC card slot and the battery compartment of the device are located behind the sliding door which is placed at the bottom of the camcorder. Open the LCD and three more buttons are revealed like LCD enhancer, Easy Q and  [...]

This is another point and shoot camera from Panasonic and they have revamped a few features to give better photo quality while still managing to keep it small. The autofocus system of the device is re-engineered, the optical image stablilistaion has been improved to provide better quality pictures clicked with shaking hand and there is a great new 8x zoom wide-angle lens. It is a surprise how Panasonic has managed to put all this and still make it a sleek and thin camera. Mostly you find 5x or 3x optical zoom on cameras of this class, we were glad to find an 8x zoom. The secret behind the compact lightweight body is the presence of extremely thin 0.3 millimeter elements in the lens. If you need a reason to buy this camera, it must be for the Power OIS, a new image stabilization feature from Panasonic. We  [...]

Camcorders built on solid state drives or SSD are fast becoming popular, the only thing that keeps it from reaching the masses is the high price. However we are sure that with time it will become cheaper and completely replace traditional hard disks even in computers. SSDs are more popular because there are no moving parts and hence less heat dissipation, less noise and larger battery life. SSD is still costly which means you will have to shell out a premium price if you want to own this device. The all plastic exteriors make this device look good and the keys like photo button, zoom switch, mode, power and record are all located under your forefinger or thumb which makes it easy to operate. Below the device are the connectors for USB, miniHDMI, power connectors and AV. The grip of the camera rotates up to 150 degrees but it will lock only at 2 positions. Buttons for photo flash, power switch, full auto easy Q, options for image stabilization and  [...]

Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ35 is an improved version of the older FZ28 from the same company. This new camera has bigger resolution, faster AF, AVCHD Lite movie code support and improved optical stabilizer. All this gives you better photo quality and better performance from the older model but we don’t think this is the best of mega zoom cameras. The modes such as intelligent auto, PASM and preset scene program are all there and in addition to it, we really liked the new movie mode which had manual controls and the capability to save three custom settings groups. There are plenty of options for AF like tracking, face detection, narrower spot, 1-area and 11 area mode. The Fn button is programmable and is the short cut button to white balance, ISO sensitivity, metering, AF mode or mode of intelligent exposure. You will have to read the reference manual of the camera carefull before you start using the unit even if you are a veteran photographer. This is because  [...]

You rarely find a compact camera that gives stellar performance in low light conditions. DSC-WX1 is trying to be the first one in this class and it has put high-end lens, fast image processor and new sensor design to do this and we must say that photos under dim light now look better. The faster processor also gives you a speedy camera. This camera has Sony G f2.4 wide-angle lens (which is quite fast) and back-illuminated Exmor R CMOS sensor to give you the same set of capabilities that was the bigger HX1 achieved. The controls are all located at the back, next to the LCD but this doesn’t make it looked crowded. On the top of the DSC-WX1 there are a couple of buttons like shutter release, a button for high speed shooting and power button. The shutter release and power key are located quite close to each other and we had problems with this. Often we ended up switching off the camera when we were trying to access the shutter button. For all the  [...]

HG21 is another simple to use HD camcorder from Canon. It is just like HF11 from the same manufacturer however the HG21 records to internal memory and the earlier model records on hard drive. If you don’t mind the weight and a shorter battery life then get a hard drive based camcorder or else go for flash drive based ones. Flash drives are now preferred all over but they come at a higher price. So apart from the storage medium is there anything else different in this product? Will this make a good buy? The answer is yes. HG21 has a 120 GB hard drive and HF11 model had a 32 GB internal flash memory. We were glad with the 11 hours rated battery life for the camcorder. HG21 also has a view finder which is now becoming rare. The controls are all located on bezel of the LCD which can be a bit difficult to use, especially the five way joystick button. The screen is 2.7 inch big which is neither smaller nor bigger as compared to most camcorders in this range. The

DCR-SX41 is a camcorder from Sony which has 60x megazoom lens, 8 GB of internal memory and there is also an expansion slot to put more memory. This device is made for people who don’t need too many features or are confused with such convoluted options. What you get in the end is a simple to use camcorder without any advanced features and mediocre performance. The inferior quality will show when you view the videos on a big HDTV. The battery peeps out from the back of the camcorder and below there is power input and the card slot for putting Memory Stick Pro Duo cards. Apart from this, there are five buttons for turning the display information on and off, a key for directly recording on to the DVD, Backlight option, easy button that relieves you all the advanced features and gives you a simple ‘point and shoot’ interface. Rest all of the  [...]