Tag: External

by Leland Richardson on November 9, 2021 0

Samsung HMX-Q10 Camcorder Review

The Samsung HMX-Q10 is a high definition camcorder that captures 1920 x 1080 video in the H.264 to SDHC memory cards. It offers a 2.7-inch LCD display, 10x optical zoom lens with optical image stabilization and a unique grip which lets you flip the camcorder to film with both the right and left hands.

The Samsung Q10 retails for $299. Full specifications can be found here.

Samsung Q10 at a Glance

The Good: Strong video quality, responsive touch-screen, nice design

The Bad: Awkward zoom lever, no automatic lens cover

Samsung HMX Q10 Video Quality

Samsung’s HMX Q10 records 1920 x 1080 video in the H.264 format. It’s also capable of recording at 720/60 frames per second for capturing fast-moving subjects and at VGA resolution.

Given its lower price tag, the Q10 is competing more with pocket camcorders and it clearly exceeds them in the quality department. While there were instances of over-exposure, with bright sunlight washing out highlights, the Q10 captured mostly crisp, color-accurate video. It did well indoors as well. I took it into a dimly lit aquarium and after a second or two of blur as it sought to establish focus, the Q10 was able to resolve the scene quite well considering the challenging environment.

You can also snap 4.9-megapixel still photos with the Q10, although you should steer clear of taking stills with the Q10 as the results were unimpressive.

Optics

The Q10 packs a 10x optical zoom lens with optical image stabilization – a nice plus not usually found on lower-cost camcorders. There’s also a digital zoom, which, fortunately, can be deactivated. All-in-all, a nice optical package. The only draw back is that there’s no automatic lens cover. However, there is a built-in cover that flips open and closed using a switch on top of the lens barrel – that’s a far better option than a lens cap, but not as good as an automatic cover.

Samsung HMX Q10 Design

The design of the Q10 is pretty spartan, with few external controls outside of a zoom lever/shutter button on the back of the camcorder. Flip open the 2.7-inch display and you’ll see only a home button, which brings you into the camcorder’s internal memory.

With the Q10, Samsung introduced a design innovation called the “Swithgrip” – which essentially lets you film using either your right or left hand. When you switch from right to left, the menu items on the display will automatically orient themselves correctly. Since there are no external controls on the top of the camcorder to operate, the transition from right-handed to left-handed filming is seamless. Left-handed users, rejoice!

Thanks to the use of flash memory, the Q10 is quite light and compact, weighing in at .4lbs and sized at 4.7 x 2.1 x 1.7 inches. It certainly won’t be a drag to carry the Q10 around with you on long trips. Aesthetically it won’t turn many heads but is available in your choice of black and blue. The only real knock on the design is that wrist strap, which is kind of flimsy.

Q10 Features

You’ll find a nice selection of shooting options on the Q10, despite its budget price tag. You’ll have time lapse recording and a selection of digital effects to apply various filters to your video including black and white, sepia, negative, art, noir, western, dazzle, and ghost. You can switch between automatic and manual recording, where you’ll have the ability to focus manually, set white balance, adjust exposure, night mode, and backlit compensation. All in all a very strong feature set for a camcorder at this price.

The Q10 is loaded with Samsung’s Intelli-Studio software, which installs automatically whenever you connect the camcorder to a computer via USB.

Menu and Display

The Q10 offers a 2.7-inch touch screen LCD display. It’s quite responsive and it’s helped along with an icon-driven menu interface. Pop open the display and you’ll see a row of icons indicating your scene mode and then controls for switching between still and video capture, zoom and playback. It’s always better to have more real-estate on a display when working with a touch-screen, but Samsung keeps the number of icons on the display to a minimum so it’s easy to hit the ones you need with your finger. At any point you can hit the “home” key on the exterior of the display and get back into the main menu.

Samsung HMX-Q10 Memory

The Q10 records directly to SDHC memory cards, so you’ll need to factor in the cost of a memory card into your equation. The Q10 cannot record to newer, higher-capacity SDXC cards so you’re memory capacity is limited to 32GB (or eight hours of HD recording).

Bottom Line

If you’re in the market for a low-cost HD camcorder but are leery about the quality and limited feature-set of a pocket camcorder, the HMX-Q10 is definitely a solid choice. It’s slightly more expensive than most pocket models on the market at $300, but delivers a better zoom, better video quality and a more robust feature set. It’s unique “SwitchGrip” design gives both left and right-handed users the ability to hold the Q10 naturally and comfortably. All-in-all a good choice in the budget-end of the HD camcorder market.

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by Leland Richardson on November 12, 2019 0

Four Things Every Camcorder Owner Should Do With Their Video

Everyone could have their own channel now since youtube was launched. This is good for camera video business, especially camcorder. You could get clearer video especially with the developing of the quality of camcorder video.

We tend to put a lot of thought into what kind of camcorder we want or we focus (if you will) on the event we’re recording. But what comes next – what you do with those videos when you’re done with them – is just as important. Here are four things every camcorder owner should do with their videos:

Keep them organized

Between our phones, cameras and camcorders, we’re amassing more digital files than ever. That means that staying organized is a priority. To ensure you know where your videos are when you need them, you need to create (and stick to) a simple organizational plan. It should start with immediately transferring videos from your camcorder to your computer. Letting videos pile up on the camcorder’s memory is a recipe for disorganization (and disaster – you could lose the camcorder or drop it in the toilet).

Clearly label your folders with relevant information

The next step is to clearly label your folders with relevant information regarding the videos they contain – including date and location. You needn’t rename individual video files, per se, but containing folders need to be clearly labeled and all stored in the same place. Wherever possible, it’s better to use software to transfer your videos onto your PC or Mac. Video software (either the program that shipped with your camcorder or a third party application) offers more tools for organizing videos, such as the ability to tag your files with location or personal data.

Share them

With the proliferation of video-sharing sites like YouTube and Vimeo, it’s never been easier to share your video, even your high definition or 3D video, with friends and family no matter where in the world they live.

You can create personal pages on a number of online sites to host your videos and invite friends and family by email to let them view your movies. Or, make the pages public and let the world in on the fun. Social networks like Facebook and Twitter are getting increasingly video-friendly.

You can also share them via email.

Most camcorders ship with software that will enable you to email video clips, including the option to resize (i.e. shrink) your video down to a reasonable size, so they won’t clog your recipients inbox. Free software, such as Google’s Picasa, can also do the trick.

There are also conventional ways to share – such as viewing on a TV, either via a direct connection from your camcorder to the TV (via A/V or HDMI cable) or by burning your video to disk. In this digital era, many media players, such as the Boxee or TiVo, can display any videos stored on a home network on your TV, bypassing the need to either connect your camcorder to your set or burn DVDs. Be warned, though, that streaming HD video on a home network can tax older wireless networks.

You can also project videos from your camcorder using a pico-projector (some camcorders are now being built with their own projectors as well).

Create: If you cringe at the thought of video editing, you’re in good company. It can be a laborious process. Fortunately, there are several software programs, and online tools, that can automatically blend still photos and HD video from your camcorder into a multimedia show that can be uploaded to YouTube (or Facebook, or Vimeo, etc.) or shared via email. Services such as Animoto and software like Muvee Reveal offer a very straightforward approach to video product – with a few drag and drop effects, captions and titles standing between yourself and a professional-looking video creation.

Back them up

This is, without a doubt, the most important step. Many newer camcorder owners, and especially pocket camcorder owners, likely save their videos directly to a hard drive. If you’re among them, your videos are in jeopardy. Hard drives won’t last all that long. If you only store your videos on a hard drive, you risk losing them all in one catastrophic hard drive crash. Consider purchasing an external hard drive or using a cloud storage service (or, ideally, both) to save your videos to. (You can learn more about archiving your videos here.) Suffice it to say that you should immediately created duplicate copies of your videos files on an external drive and/or cloud service right after you transfer those videos to your computer. Future generations will thank you.

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by David Burgess on September 22, 2016 0

Sony DSCW800 Product Specification

Capturing moments using camera is one way to capsule precious memories so that it will not be forgotten over the time which cannot be repeated twice, unless you have got some super power to travel back in time then it is going to be another topic to discuss. Sony DSCW800 is one to be talked about.

It is a cyber-shot camera released by Sony with a low price, but its exterior is designed with simplicity. Plus the size makes it easy to slip the camera into pocket. Talking about W800’s quality and performance, there are some cons and pros toward the product. Therefore, before you buy the product, it is better for you to review this specification first.

Pros and Cons of Sony DSCW800

Let’s take a look to the pros. It is believed that the Sony DSCW800 has a good performance when you use it to take photos in a spot with good light. With a good light provided by nature, the result can be even better. Plus, the W800 is also said to have improved its manual control which now becomes easier to maneuver.

If we see the size and weight, the W800 is suitable for those who hate heavy products, because W800 is lightweight and compact.

Jumping to the price, the shoot camera is on sale for a low price which is $89.99 on Amazon. Thus price completes the item with its goods such as the replacement battery, external charger, MC, and Deluxe starter kit, while if you buy the W800 that sits below price tag £79.50, you will not receive any goods mentioned previously; you will most likely to receive the Sony DSCW800 digital compact camera only.

So the price really does say something. However it also depends on where you buy the W800. Perhaps when you buy it, the coupons or discounts is happening so that you will be given even cheaper price.

But from the cons, the camera is also said to have a poor quality of lighting since it is only good when the nature provides its light, plus it can only zoom for five times. These cons are a few compared to many great quality you are getting once you buy the product. If you are curious and want to know more, with such a low price, it can be an opportunity to give it a try.

Interested in buying Sony DSCW800? Then you can effortlessly click below to order.

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