Samsung SMX-F34 Flash Memory Camcorder w/16GB Memory & 42x Intelli-Zoom (Black) by Samsung
|
List Price: Our Price: $200.00 You Save: $129.99 (39%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Category: Digital Camera See more digital camera details and other models |
|---|
Digital camera reviews of Samsung SMX-F34 Flash Memory Camcorder w/16GB Memory & 42x Intelli-Zoom (Black)
Digital camera Review: Good Tech Specs on paper, Reality Bites!
Summary: 1 Stars
Well, perhaps you have read all the nice reviews about this camcorder. So had I. That is why there was no hesitation that this model was going to be my choice.
However, reality played a nice trick. First thing out of the box, the smell of the plastic strap, that you use to hold the camcorder, is unbearable. Left in a room, it fills it up with foul chemical odor. With time, it will wear off. Perhaps.
Then, the second shocker, was a spelling mistake on the box itself - hassel-free vs. hassle-free. Well, a good knock-off? From Amazon? I don't want to believe it.
The battery was charged very fast - 2 hours.
The next day, an excellent, sunny New England Saturday, I went out to test it. The operation is very easy and the learning curve is small. The camcorder feels a bit big in my hand, there is a bit of tension while zooming - I feel I am going to drop it.
The screen is so-so quality. I can only compare to my Sony p92 camera and Canon Digital Rebel.
If you zoom more than 10X or so, the shake is unbearable. There is no stabilization. If you use tri-pod, you should be fine.
Then, in the afternoon, I downloaded the files. The pictures are unusable - huge file size, unclear, fuzzy, smeared faces. Horrid.
Then, I saw the video quality. This samsung uses new compression, and you can record around 600 mins or so at fine quality. There are HUGE jaggies in the videos, at the moment the camera moves, or your hand shakes. I had not seen such problem with sample videos on YouTube. I am using excellent IBM laptop with the latest video drivers, latest vido software - in short, you cannot get any better than this. So I tried to convert the videos - m4p format if I recall, to .avi or mpg. Then, there is obvious improvement. But size is twice or trice and it takes time.
The the unthinkable happened. The camera failed me, when I needed it most. It seems, I had accidentally left it on, while testing before a very important day. 10 dollar calculators have authomatic power off after 10 mins, but not my samsung. So, the next day, I power the camcorder on and the battery is dead. It was a betrayal of the most vicious kind. So, samsung would still have to earn my trust - for now, they remain gimmicky brand. (I know full well, that the Samsung brand has gained on Sony)
Verdict - use on your own risk.
Digital camera Review: Good product, watch out for long files
Summary: 4 Stars
Good Product, especially at this price point. Extremely simple to use.
For the tech people, it will give you a
720x480 (h264+AAC in mp4 container). aspect ratio is square (see below)
Watching on a computer, you should apply post-processing to apply a deinterlace filter (60i).
A previous poster remarked that you cannot pause with this device. Pause is a holdover from analog days where you need the tape to get ready on the recording heads.
Since it is digital, there are plenty of utilities that will easily allow you to join videos together and there aren't going to be any dropped frames or seams between the clips.
In contrast, be wary of long video files as they may become corrupted, and will be unwieldy to manage in file size.
The mp4 container for these video stores the index of the movie at the end of the file.
On a extremely important video shoot with this camera, the camera failed to properly "close" the file and did not write the index. As you can imagine, this is a nonexistent problem with old "analog" camcorders.
Despite my extremely high internet savvy, it does not appear there is an easy way to repair such a file freely available for the mp4 container. I engaged a repair service (Aero Quartet) and they have repaired the file. This is a fee service.
----
Regarding Aspect ratio, have posted to forum below:
It records in 720x480 square pixels (PAR 3:2=1.50), this is not 16:9.
If you are in computerland, no changes needed, the files are ready to play, and your player should letterbox accordingly when playing the files (do remember to de-interlace).
There is no mismarked aspect ratio flag, at least on my unit. I think other posters have been reviewing a different model.
For mastering to DVD, a 720x480(3:2 or 1.5) image marked as 16:9 display undergoes a 32/27 DAR transformation to get from AR 1.5 to 1.777.
You need to apply following filters:
resize to 720x480->604x480 (or 608x480)
add black borders 604x480->720x480.
then master that to DVD.
(note: whether you want to deinterlace for dvds is up for discussion)
The new 604x480 sub-image displayed on 16:9 tv, will give you just about the original 1.5 aspect ratio.
Digital camera Review: Good... but not great...
Summary: 3 Stars
I was looking for a good flash based camcorder to film things around the house, vacations, my dog, and random things for Youtube. While this camera produces ok image quality, it just wasn't great. I got it at Costco (the 8gb verson, not on Amazon) for a really good price with a nice case, but it ended up going back. I will go into some of the details about it now.
I really wanted to like it, since the design of the camera itself is very nice and fairly well built. Having the 3 hour battery life and long record time is perfect for when you go on trips and may not be able to download to a computer or charge it often. The manual lens cover is also a pro to me, since you know it won't stop working like the automatic ones can. The buttons are well placed and the menus are easy to navigate. The hand strap is ok, but could have been a bit better thought out. I do like the swivel grip, I could see that coming in handy once in a while. Now, on to what I didn't like about it.
The video quality is my main complaint about this camera, but what can you expect from a lower end inexpensive camera. I went out and did a days worth of test filming, around the house, garden, pool, neighborhood, indoors, etc... It all looked really good on the camera's screen, that is until I watched it on the computer. Everything was smashed down to 4:3 aspect ratio causing jagged lines throughout the video. From reading other reviews, I knew the camera wasn't properly flagging the 16:9 videos. I installed the included "MediaShow" software that came with the camera, and downloaded the widescreen patch from their website. I opened the videos there, and re-saved them as 16:9, at that point, I could open them with any editing software(Sony Vegas in my case). The video quality was "ok" at best, but had that soft and cheap look to it. It's fine for Youtubers, but I wanted just a little more out of a camcorder, which lead me to another camera.
When returning it to Costco, I found they had the Canon HF10 HD Camcorder for much less then it is selling anywhere else, plus it came with a memory card and nice carrying bag. I had read many good reviews about it on Amazon, so I decided to try it. It blows the Samsung away in everything from build quality (made in Japan, instead of China like the Samsung), better feel, better screen, better zoom (variable instead of fixed), the video quality is amazingly better, and the colors in the video are more vivid (CMOS instead of CCD).
Overall, this is a good beginner camera, as long as you know how to get the correct aspect ratio and aren't expecting movie quality video. If you are looking for quality, look more into a bit more expensive HD camcorder, it's well worth it.
Digital camera Review: Great Camcorder for the Price, Samsung is a Great Brand.
Summary: 5 Stars
I just purchased this camera a few days back from Target and couldn't be happier. I did almost a straight month of research on deciding what camcorder to buy. Reviews after reviews make me unsure what to buy. I started with a decision to purchase the Canon FS100. Well a week later the new model FS200 came out and was $70 more. No thanks.
Then I found information on this camcorder. It actually won an award for best entry level camcorder. Got to be good I thought. I researched Samsung camcorders from my ultimate source of camcorderinfo.com. They rated the standard definition SC-MX20 very well in comparison to camcorders much more expensive. Therefore I took the plunge.
I have used the camera for a few days now and ran through a battery of tests. First off in regular daylight or inside light the picture is phenomenal for this camcorder. Shots are crisp and clear and the autofocus is quick. Zoom is great as well; great pace to keep focus and the intelli-zoom works well too.
As for the anti-shake function, this works pretty well until you hit 8x or more zoom, then it's tough to keep it really steady. Overall the F34 was pretty good for a digital (non-optical) anti-shake.
Now on to the low light, the dreaded measure of most camcorders. I can tell you that of all the reviews I have read there is no camcorder under $600 that performs really well in low light. This is the nature of low end camcorders. Who is gonna spend most of their time recording at night anyways!!! For this the low light was ok. I went out side at night with just the motion light on and I could see what was illuminated. I turned up the exposure manually and it was even better. Not too bad for a $250 camcorder.
Overall I am very impressed with this camcorder. How can you pass up a Samsung brand item that performs well with 16GB built in and a 3 hour battery for $250? It's a steal compared to JVC and Canon. I would highly recommend.
Digital camera Review: Great Digital Camcorder for the price
Summary: 4 Stars
I've had this camcorder for around 8 months and have not had a problem. It's easy to use and easy to handle. THE BATTERY PACKS GIVE YOU ABOUT HALF THE AMOUNT ADVERTISED, BUT, YOU CAN RUN IT WITH THE AC CORD IF NECESSARY. The batteries recharge fairly quickly. IF YOU'RE LIKE ME BUY AT LEAST 2 EXTRA BATTERIES AND HAVE THEM ALL FULLY CHARGED BEFORE AN UPCOMING EVENT. ASIDE FROM THAT I REALLY LIKE MY SAMSUNG CAMCORDER. GREAT SIZE AND GREAT VALUE FOR THE COST! THANKS