Camcorder Reviews

Samsung takes some interesting turns to deliver its semibudget-priced, flash-based HD camcorder. On one hand, the SC-HMX10 seems to offer quite a bit for the money, including 720p video, 8GB built-in memory, manual exposure controls, and a microphone input, all in a diminutive package. On the other hand, you can see where they cut the corners to achieve the aggressive price, primarily by neglecting optical image stabilization, eschewing 1080i video, and using a small 1/4.5-inch sensor. Read full Samsung SC-HMX10 Review »

The DVD-recordable child in Canon’s nursery of consumer HD camcorders, the HR10 has the distinction of being my least favorite of the lot. Because it records to DVDs in the AVCHD format, it lacks the speed and compatibility of the less-expensive HV20, the recording capacity of the hard-disk-based HG10, and the compactness of the tape-based HV10. It’s not that it’s a bad product–it’s pretty typical for its class–it just can’t rise above the obstacles posed by its genes. Read full Canon HR10 Review »

When Lori Grunin reviewed JVC’s Everio GZ-HD7 a few months ago, it did all right, but she concluded that its features, performance, and image quality didn’t live up to its high price tag. JVC followed up the HD7 with the Everio GZ-HD3, a scaled-down version, which includes the same triple-CCD design and a lot of the same features. The HD3 has a different 10x optical zoom lens, this one carrying the KonicaMinolta brand instead of the Fujinon name, and with a f/1.8-2.4 maximum aperture range, as compared with the HD7’s f/1.8-1.9. In the end, the differences affect the camcorder’s general usability (in the ergonomic sense) much more than performance or image quality, which remains essentially the same as the HD7. Read full JVC Everio GZ-HD3 Review »

At the time of this writing, the best selling camcorder at Amazon.com isn’t a model from Sony, Canon, or Panasonic. It happens to be the Flip Video Ultra, the third iteration of Pure Digital Technologies’ simple plug-and-play video camera that features a hideaway USB connector and built-in software that makes viewing and sharing your videos incredibly easy. That may be a little surprising to some, but the fact is that cheap sells–the Ultra starts at $149. And when you combine cheap with easy, you can see why the Flip and its RCA relative, the RCA Small Wonder EZ201, are finding success in the marketplace. Read full Flip Video Ultra Review »

It’s easy to assume that all budget camcorders look alike. They’re all small, inexpensive miniDV devices with 25x to 35x zoom lenses, sub-megapixel sensors, and very few bells and whistles. Because of this, you might be tempted to assume that they’re all the same. Unfortunately, that isn’t the case. Under every cookie-cutter camcorder are countless variables that separate the good budget models from the bad ones. The Samsung D372, unfortunately, is one of the latter. Read full Samsung SC-D372 Review »