Samsung HMX-R10 HD review – with 25-degree angled lens for easy shooting
Thumbs Up:
Good feature set with slow-motion and interval video recording options; 25-degree angled lens; very compact shape.
Thumbs Down:
No accessory shoe or jacks for microphone and headphone; slippery body; videos has visible noise in low lighting; difficult to use manual controls at touch-screen; no lens protection.
The Whiz Kid Speaks:
Samsung HMX-R10 HD is a 1080i pocket camcorder that has 1/2.33” CMOS optical sensor of 9.15-megapixel resolution. It offers digital photo shooting mode, 100x digital zoom, wide-screen capture, and inbuilt flash. Camcorder effective video resolution is 5.3-megapixel and effective still resolution is 9-megapixel. The interpolated still resolution is 12-megapixel.
Maximum shutter speed is 1/10000 second and minimum is 1/60 second. Its exposure modes are Automatic and Program. The white balance is of three types: Automatic, Presets and Custom. White balance presets include Tungsten Light, Fluorescent, Daylight and Cloudy. Analog video format is NTSC, digital video format is H.264 and still image format is JPEG.
Samsung HMX-R10 HD has 2.7 inches touch-screen LCD display based on TFT active matrix technology. The rotating display has 230,000 pixels resolution and works as viewfinder. Its zoom lens has a focal length of 6.8-34mm with an aperture of F/3.5/3.7 that features 5x optical zoom. Zoom adjustment is motorized drive and focus adjustment is both Automatic and Manual.
The additional features of Samsung HMX-R10 HD are Still capture while video recording, Interval shooting mode, Backlight compensation, Face detection, Touch-screen controls, PictBridge support, Inbuilt speaker, Direct print and DPOF support. The camcorder also has inbuilt stereo microphone and SD memory card slot. Supported operating systems are Microsoft Windows XP/Vista.
The connector set includes 1×HDMI output, 1×Component video output, 1×USB and 1×Composite video/audio output. Samsung HMX-R10 HD has standard lithium ion rechargeable battery. Accessories supplied inside the package are power adapter, user manual, drivers and software disc, USB cable, SD memory card, A/C cable, hand grip, carrying case and battery.
Razzle Dazzle:
Samsung HMX-R10 HD has eye-catching and attractive design. Its body is capsule shaped and available in black and silver colors. Our test model had black color. It is 2.2 inches tall, 1.5 inches wide and 5 inches deep. The camcorder weighs 9.3 ounces with media and battery.
Inside Dope:
In the U.S., Samsung is in the queue to become a famous camcorder brand like JVC, Panasonic, Sony and Canon. It is noteworthy that the company is trying its best to differentiate itself from the crowd. The perfect example for the same is its new product – Samsung HMX-R10 HD that is compact HD camcorder with affordable price tag. It features numerous shooting options, easy to use controls and 25-degree angled lens. The HMX-R10 costs $499.99 and is the best point-and-shot camcorder. Needless to say, it is one step ahead as compared to other pocket mini-camcorders available in the market. On the dark side, its results at 1080p are not so good like that of other resolution options.
Samsung HMX-R10 HD is very easy to use with its 25-degree angled lens. You do not have to cock back your wrist to capture any photograph. Not only its lens helps to keep the wrist straight, but it also makes easy to held natural position for shooting pictures and videos. If you are using traditional positioning for your camcorder, then you may need few minutes to adjust. The right side of the R10 is so curved that palm fits easily in camcorder’s body. Instead of traditional strap, the company has included wrist strap due to these angled lens. You have to be careful while gripping the camcorder as the stand and body is made up of slippery material.
Shutter release button for pictures sits on the top of Samsung HMX-R10 HD. Record button, vertical zoom rocker, and Mode button to switch between shooting video and images are located on the back. USB/AV jacks, DC input and mini-HDMI port sits behind covered panel located at the back beneath Mode and other buttons. We are disappointed that persons with small hands will face difficulty to reach the controls at back, especially while using zoom rocker. We prefer to have the zoom rocker button on the top.
Samsung HMX-R10 HD has 2.7 inches touch-screen LCD display that can be flipped open for better view. You will find other zoom and record controls with Q.Menu button behind the display. The Q.Menu button allows quickly adjusting frequently used shooting options such as exposure, resolution, white-balance, focus and more. iCheck/display, Easy Q and power buttons sits in LCD cavity. iCheck/display button can show and off the onscreen information when camcorder is on. Otherwise, it displays remaining storage capacity and battery life only when camcorder is off. Easy Q is the Samsung’s automatic mode.
You can use the touch-screen for manually adjusting the settings such as aperture, shutter speed and focus. However, the touch-screen is not quick responsive and there is calibration setting. We like that you will get one-touch focus option to do focus on particular object or person.
Battery as well as memory card compartments are located on the bottom. Samsung HMX-R10 HD does not internal storage, but supplies an SDHC/SD memory card for external storage. The battery life of the camcorder is perfect in its class, but we will recommend you to invest additionally for getting a backup pack. Inbuilt flash sits on the front, but cannot be used as video light. Moreover, there is no additional accessory shoe for installing external microphone or headphone. The camcorder comes with protective case, but you have to carefully put it inside the case without scratching the lens.
Samsung HMX-R10 HD provides numerous shooting options including four HD modes: 720/60p, 1080/30p, 1080/60i (normal) and 1080/60i (superfine). It also allows the interval recording of clips every 30, 15, 10, 5, 3 and 1 seconds either over periods of 72, 48 and 24 hours or up to available storage capacity. You can capture high speed videos at 600fps at 192×108 pixels resolution and 300 fps at 416×240 pixels. The HMX-R10 HD seems to be more for point-and-record usage.
The video quality of Samsung HMX-R10 HD is the perfect in its class. It performed best in 1080/60i (superfine) and most consistent in 720/60p with very less trailing and artifacts. The video quality at 1080/30p was choppy and unwatchable especially for moving objects. The quality was smoother at 1080/60i, but artifacts and trailing were visible. There was a bit more color noise and distortion in indoor and low light scenes at all modes. However, Samsung’s capability to turn on 3D-NR noise reduction helped to smooth out the images.
Overall, the color performance of Samsung HMX-R10 HD is on par as compared to others in its class. One of the biggest problems is that colors looks a tad faded and there is no control option to make them more vivid. The auto white balance was good while testing.
The photo quality of Samsung HMX-R10 HD is better than other camcorders in its price range, but cannot replace dedicated still camera. At lower ISO levels, the photos show rich color and nice sharpness in bright light. You can use the still camera functions including semi-manual and manual controls as well as touch focus in video mode. The still capture effective resolution is 9-megapixel, whereas interpolated resolution is 12-megapixel.
Nitty Gritty:
Samsung HMX-R10 HD camcorder is worth one as compared to others in its price range. If you are looking for a budget-friendly fine HD video quality camcorder with good features and performance, then you can buy the new – HMX-R10 HD.
