Two new standard-definition camcorders from Samsung jumped out of the nearest bush and surprise attacked us today, thanks to the spontaneous and adventurous nature of the company's Korean headquarters. The Samsung SMX-C14 and Samsung SMX-C10 appear to be cast from the same mold as the HMX-R10, winner of the 2009 DIMA Innovative Digital Product Award for its unconventional design and Jetsons-like architecture.
So, rather than go back to the drawing board, Samsung decided to take the HMX-R10 and add a slice of sophistication. Note the new SMX-C14's glossy color infusion and stealthy black chassis, a finish Samsung likes to refer to as "ToC", or "Touch of Color". The body remains the same, but Samsung has added a few new features into the mixing bowl and a dash of media selectivity.
First off, the only major divergences on the new tracks appear to be the Samsung SMX-C14's 16GB of internal flash memory and an SD/SDHC card slot while the Samsung SMX-C10 will record solely to SD/SDHC cards. Samsung promises up to 6 hours of recording time with the H.264 compression on the 16GB internal flash drive and an impressive battery life of 2 hours and 40 minutes per single charge.
Other than memory, both camcorders are identical and feature 10x optical zooms, 230,000-pixel 2.7-inch LCDs and Hyper Image Stabilization. We're not entirely sure what Hyper Image Stabilization entails, albeit an Optical or Electronic system, but the name suggests that this image stabilization is not here to screw around.
The Features highlight reel consists of Samsung's intelli-studio play-edit sharing program, which allows shooters to USB the camcorder to any computer and playback and edit footage, software-free. Like most compact camcorders today, the Samsung SMX-C14 and Samsung SMX-C10 support One-Touch Uploads to popular video sharing sites like YouTube and are capable of hosting in-camera editing like splitting and merging clips.
Time-lapse recording will also be part of the Samsung SMX-C14 and SMX-C10's arsenals, allowing shooters to capture a frame in one, three, five, 10, 15 or 30-second intervals for those golden sunsets. The camcorders will also offer Animated Thumbnails, which function kind of like a DVD menu in Playback. A brief video preview clip will play when a thumbnail is highlighted, allowing shooters to attain a better handle on the content of their clips before launching it on the full screen. In addition to an AC adapter, the Samsung SMX-C14 and SMX-C10 can be charged via USB when connected to a computer, which is a nice option if you're strapped with one or the other.
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