Samsung R10 Camcorder Review
R10 – Full HD Flash Camcorder from Samsung
Samsung does not feel diffident when it comes to the design of the product, their new product R10 camcorder bears the most unusual look ever seen. It is creating a splash amongst gizmo lovers through its unique sloppy lens and curvilinear design. It is flat on one side with opulent brushed aluminium finish, concave on the other side and is rounded on each end and the lens is raked at an angle of 25 degrees. On all it may look ugly but in the performance it is extremely beguiling. Let us have a look at its impressive performance and unusual looks in the following review.
Design of R10:
Brushed Aluminium Pattern On The Top Of The Plastic:
The new Samsung R10 Full HD Flash Camcorder has taken a slightly different colour path compared to its earlier models. It comes in two colours one in complete glossy black and the other in silver colour. A brushed aluminium pattern will be found on top of the plastic, when you have a close look at the side where the screen folds out. All the writings over the camcorder are incised in plastic except that the Samsung and HD logos that are found glued on. If you try to make a look long ways down the camera you will find that it is actually quite thin. It can also be undoubtedly said that it is thinner than all the other previous 1080 handheld camcorders we had seen earlier.
Simple Looking Camcorder with Less Physical Buttons:
A closer look at the R10 camcorder’s body discloses that in terms of buttons cam can be said as a simple looking part of the camcorder. The only three physical buttons found on the exterior part of the body are photo, mode and record. Along side of the record button you will find the first of the two zoom toggle switches. You will find a power button, display/iCheck button and EasyQ button, inside when you open the screen. You will also encounter a Qmenu button, a second zoom toggle switch and a second record button on the frame of the screen. As the R10’s primary features are functioned and programmed through touch screen, there is not much need of more number of physical buttons.
Switches Its HDMI Port On to The Back Edge:
On the back edge of Samsung R10 Full HD Camcorder you will bump over a small cover, which on opening unveils the DC charging plug, an AV jack and a built-in HDMI port. It is very good to see the HDMI port on back, Samsung had the port on back in HMX10A model but they removed this feature from the HMX20C model, but now it is back again in R10’s design.
On The Right Side of Samsung R10:
The right side of the new device is more notable for its missing and additional feature. You will find a concave surface and a wrist strap lead, but it is lacking hand strap. However the new wrist strap is providing necessary grip which would not remind you of the hand strap. But we should worry a lot about the video graphers who got used to hand strap all these years, using R10 with wrist strap.
Top and Bottom parts of the R10 Camcorder:
An outstanding shutter button for still photography is provided on the top of the Samsung R10. The bottom of the R10 is the place where the enclosure of the battery and SD/SDHC card slot, a tripod mount, and stereo microphone are located.
Lack Of Hand Strip Makes You Feel Awkward:
You may find it bungle some when you first wear it on, as the new Samsung R10 lacks the traditional hand strip to slide your hand in and have a tight grip. Even though there is no hand-strip, it is not even causing any feeling of hand-strip, at least which gives you the confidence of not dropping the device on ground, when you should accidentally open you fist during the shooting.
Features:
Camera Lens Tilted At 25 Degrees Upward:
When you have a first look at the new Samsung HMX-R10BN/XAA camcorder you may probably think that “something makes it really look weird at the front of the camera”. Well, this is true in some point of view. The camera’s lens is mounted at a 25 degree upward angle. You may be eager to know the reason. You normally hold your camera at some level when you shoot some videos or take some photos, which is not a perfect level to hold. As we know, generally most of the users hold the video camera about a foot or so away from their breast bone, which provides the hand itself has roughly 25 degrees downward tilt. Now you have understood that to compensate this Samsung R10 was given a 25 degrees upward tilt. It may seem uncanny in the beginning but when you start with it, on the go you will find it to be natural. An unusual look is added to camera by the glass cover which covers the lens in front. One may not agree with Samsung’s idea of fixing glass cover instead of a lens cap, although the glass cover is scratch proof and designed to protect the lens itself. Many users like the lens cap even though it will not protect from scratches to get rid of keeping the glass clean and free from finger prints.
SD And SDHC Memory Cards:
The Samsung R10 Digtal Camcorder does not have any internal memory, unlike the earlier Samsung flash camcorders. Memory should be provided by the user itself in the form of SD and SDHC memory cards. However downloading video footages from R10 into the computer is made very easier similar to the USB flash drive would when connected to the computer.
QMenu User Programmable Button:
The QMenu button encountered on the frame of the screen is fundamentally a user programmable set of four hot keys that turn up on the touch screen when you press the button. This button gives you access to any of the camera’s vital features and settings with not more than two button presses. For instance, my QMenu is comprised of a resolution button, exposure control button, back light button and focus control button. It is of great interest to point out few changes made to R10’s QMenu compared to its earlier models, the new model consists of only four buttons which is cut down from six of the older models and also it is now user editable (you may have never experienced the ability to change options in the menu). The users will definitely love this facility of modifying the options and setting according to their wishes. But the cut down of buttons from six to four really means that you should undergo a lot of menu navigations for most of the common features. But, of course you can reduce these many navigations by just pressing the menu button which is located on the lower corner of the screen at any time and display whole list of options at a time.
Face Detection is Included in both Video and Picture Modes:
In Samsung R10 high Definition Camcorder, both video and picture modes are facilitated with face detection. That means it detects the face automatically in the picture and video and also works hard to make sure whether they all are in focus or not.
Surprising Specifications of the Device:
The most surprising specifications of Samsung R10 are as follows: it blusters an 5x zoom, electronic picture stabilisation, shoots a full HD 1080/50i for an effectual 25fps at 17 MB/sec, or 720 at 50 fps and also a bit rate of 12 MB/sec. It also takes stills of nine mega pixels. In addition to all these, it is incorporated with a couple of fun slow motion modes to play with videos and also a merged stereo microphone.
Samsung R10, A Pocketable Device:
The Samsung R10 Camcorder is a very appealing camcorder: it appears and senses wonderful, it is extremely a pocketable device, and in addition to this, it shoots high quality footage at high resolutions. Even though it is not up into the “A list” selections, like Sanyo Xacti VPC-HD2000, Samsung R10 is comparatively of low price which makes it a good substitute.
Installation of Software Into R10:
One of the newfangled features we can watch on the R10’s design is IntelliStudio. IntelliStudio is an editing software and is implanted on the flash memory inside the Samsung R10 Camcorder along with video/photo playback. This software is made more easy to use as it executes and runs directly from the camcorder on any Windows XP or newer system, mostly similar to U3 on USB, but we regret for the Mac users for this feature.
Performance:
Electronic Image Stabilisation:
Samsung R10 does not have any optical image stabilisation. But even at prolonged zoom, the electronic stabilisation works excellently well, locking after approximately a second to provide steady hand held images. Even the quality is fairly good. Few tests were conducted in low light which demonstrated some obtrusive grains and little RGB noise, whilst the colour accuracy is bang on. The detail capture outside the small lens does not seem to be sharper; however, again the colours were very good.
Able To Record both High and Standard Definition Videos:
You will be capable of recording both high definition and standard definition movies ranging from VGA (640 x 480) up to 1080i/p by using Samsung’s R10. In the new model audio is recorded by stereo AAC format at 48kHz. Following is a small list of all supported recording modes and their available qualities. HD: 1920 x 1080 at 60i (SF/N), 1920 x 1080 at 30p (SF), 1280 x 720 at 60p (SF), SD: 720 x 480P at 60p (SF), VGA at 30p (SF).
Photo Quality Settings and Resolutions:
Though the Samsung R10’s original capture quality is 9.0 mega pixels, image capture quality ranges from VGA up to 12 mega pixels interpolated. Only in the super fine quality setting, all the photos can be taken. The flash on the front of the camera can be set to off, auto, red eye reduction or fill modes, even though small bit of variety for a camera mainly designed for video. Adumbrate of all the photo quality settings and resolutions are noted below:
12M: 4000 x 3000/ interpolation, 9M: 4:3, 3456 x 1872, 6M: 16:9, 3328 x 1872, 5M: 4:3, 2592 x 1944, 3M: 4:3, 2048 x 1536, 2M: 16:9, 1920 x 1080, VGA: 640 x 480.
Quality of the Footage is Brilliant:
The quality of the video footage recorded was exceedingly brilliant and you would not encounter any ailments in the functionality. There is a significant point you should keep in your mind, when you shoot the video in high definition definitely you will need a moderately new computer to play back them because of their extremely eminent resolutions when compared to other old computer resolutions. But of course just with contrivance of flash memory alternatively to tapes, you can switch to standard definition mode which permits you to use it same as your earlier old video camcorders.
Captures Snap in Video Mode:
The photo button will simply capture the image of current frame when you are in video mode. Even though these images are not of high quality, you should switch to photo mode to achieve full image quality. You will acquire a completely new set of options in menu and QMenu when you shift to photo mode.
Snapshots with Flash On and Off:
A test has been conducted on Samsung R10 Video Camcorder by switching it into highest quality, 12 mega pixels, and taken an assortment of snapshots with flash on and flash off. The snapshots do not match with the photos from an original digital photo camera, though they have pretty good colour and are of high resolution. You can nearly discover the photos turning gritty very fast in the shots before zooming them. But all these quality depends on the design of the lens, as it is a video lens designed for 1080 p video; you would not find the high quality digital still photo lens in the same park.
Contents in the Box:
One Samsung R10 camcorder, Battery, wrist strap, carry pouch, AC charger adapter w/AC cable, USB cable, component cable, two ferrite cable wraps and one manual/ warranty package are the components included in the Package of Samsung R10 Full HD flash camcorder.
Warranty:
Samsung offers its R10 Full HD Flash Camcorder one year standard warranty.
Verdict:
The Samsung R10 Full HD Flash Camcorder is shown to be a satisfyingly solid 1080 high definition flash camcorder for a comparatively less price with its competitors. And together with its common features from the earlier models, Samsung R10 has jumped a little higher with its lens tilted at a 25 degree upward and in built PC editing/playback software. Even though you may be worried about the lack of hand strap and lens cover, these are not to be much bothered by everyone when you compare with its brilliant features, performance and price. The new device looks, feels and functions as an expensive camcorder, but its real price surprises you a lot.
Check other High Definition Camcorder Reviews in our website.
Samsung R10 HD Flash Memory Camcorder – Technical Specification Details
| Manufacturer | Samsung |
| Model Name | R10 full HD Flash Camcorder |
| Product Code | HMX-R10BN/XAA |
| Product type | Camcorder-1080i |
| Dimensions (H x W x D) | 2.2″ x 1.5″ x 5″ |
| Weight | 8.1 oz |
| Display Type | LCD display – TFT active matrix – 2.7 in – Colour |
| Colour | Black and Silver |
| Digital zoom | 100 x |
| Optical Sensor Size | 1/ 2.33″ |
| Optical Sensor type | CMOS |
| Analog Video Format | NTSC |
| Digital Video Format | H.264 |
| Minimum/Maximum Shutter Speed | 1/ 60 sec and 1/ 10000 sec resp |
| Shooting Modes | Digital photo mode |
| Camera Flash | Built-in flash |
| Wide screen video capture | Yes |
| Face Detection | Yes |
| Still Image Format | JPEG |
| Supported Flash Memory | SD Memory Card |
| Media Type | Flash Card |
| Optical zoom of lens | 5 x |
| Focus Adjustment | Manual, Automatic |
| Digital Still Camera Function | Yes |
| Included Accessories | Hand grip |
| Connector Type | 1 x Composite video/audio output, 1 x USB, 1 x Component video output , 1 x HDMI output |
| Expansion Slots | 1 x SD Memory Card |
| Power Device | Power adapter- external |
| Supported Battery | 1 x Li-ion rechargeable battery (included) |
| Pack Particulars | One Samsung R10 camcorder, one battery, one wrist strap, one carry pouch, one AC charger adapter w/AC cable, one USB cable, one component cable, two ferrite cable wraps and one manual/ warranty package |
| Warranty | One year |
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