Samsung H200 Full HD Camcorder with 20x Optical Zoom (Black) Has potential but poor quality control makes it a gamble – M. Erb – Syracuse, NY
The Samsung HMX-H200 series of digital camcorders (HMX-200, HMX-203, HMX-204, HMX-205) provide a robust set of features in an increasingly crowded field of similarly sized camcorders in the under 0 price range. The only difference between the different Samsung models is the amount of onboard internal memory. They all have an SD card slot but other than the HMX-200, the other models offer internal memory as well. The HMX-203 has 8GB, HMX-H204 has 16GB and the H205 has a whopping 32GB of memory.
There are probably as many shortcomings with the camcorder as there are pluses, so let’s get started.
I actually purchased the HMX-H205 but since the various H200 series camcorders are identical except for the built-in memory, I decided to post my review to what will be the more widely purchased H200 model. My observations pertain to all of the H200 series camcorders.
The camcorder comes with a composite video cable, a USB cable, AC power adapter, battery and the camcorder itself. For best viewing on a flat-screen TV you’ll need to purchase a mini-HDMI to HDMI cable since it is not included.
If you are buying this camcorder sight unseen, that is you’ve never handled one in a store, you may be surprised, as I was, at how small and light this device actually is. It’s extremely light which is not necessarily a good thing because that lightness makes it a bit difficult to keep steady. I know that sounds counter-intuitive but I find it to be true. So it is a good thing that this camcorder has image stabilization which definitely helps but more so at wide angle and minimal zoom. At higher zoom, the helpful effect is diminished to the point of being quite ineffective.
The H205 has a lens that gives you a good amount of wide-angle (37mm) compared to other camcorders and also provides a very useable optical zoom of 20x. Add in the digital zoom and you’ve got quite a powerful zoom on this camcorder. When you use a tripod, be sure to turn image stabilization off when zooming in all the way, it is really amazing how you can bring distant objects in to view. Of course when you zoom in that tightly, hand-held jitters are magnified greatly so that’s why using a tripod is essential since image stabilization has little effect when zoomed in all the way.
The camcorder provides HD video in two flavors, 1920 x 1080/60i & 1280 x 720/60p. I’ll let the technicians debate the differences between 60i and 60p (interlaced vs progressive). Let’s just say that for an under 0 camcorder the video quality is stunning, particularly if this is your first camcorder or if you are upgrading from an older SD camcorder. I find that video recorded at 1280/60p are just fine for my use and appreciably extends the recording time of my HMX-H205.
A feature that I really enjoy with this camcorder is that Samsung has combined the video and photo function. You do not need to switch out of video mode to get into Photo mode in order to capture still images. Simply depress the “Photo” button, located on the top of the camera just to the right of the zoom control, and the camcorder will capture a still image (even when you are recording video.) Very slick and eliminates the need to switch in and out of video mode in order to grab a still shot. You can even capture a still shot from video already captured by depressing the “Photo” button during video playback. Some have complained about the photo resolution of this camcorder but my feeling is that this is primarily a camcorder that also happens to take still photos. It is not a dedicated still frame camera. Even so, it does take respectable photos at 2880 x 1620 resolution ( 4.7 Megapixel JPEG photos ). I think that’s great for what this is… a camcorder that can also take fairly decent stills.
There are two zoom controls, one on the top of the camera body, the other on the left edge of the LCD panel. The control on the top of the camera offers a variable speed zoom but the “throw” is very short and it is therefore difficult to smoothly transition into a zoom regardless if you want a slow or fast zoom speed. If you are very gentle you can do a slow zoom but it requires practice. The zoom on the LCD panel offers only one zoom speed, but it is a slower zoom that may be preferable in many instances. I found myself using it more often than not.
Focusing the camcorder is accomplished in one of three ways. Auto Focus is probably your best bet most of the time. It works pretty well in many situations. In certain situations though it may have a hard time finding the proper focus point in which case you have two other options… you can use what Samsung calls “manual” focus or “touch-point” focus. In manual focus, additional icons representing close and far appear. By touching either one with you finger you can “manually” adjust the focus. But you have to rely on what you can see in the LCD which as I mentioned earlier, can be quite difficult in bright light. For me, I am always overshooting the focus point and have to go back and forth before I can achieve sharp focus. This may improve with practice, but I’m doubtful. The final option is the “touch-point” focus which is kind of interesting. In this mode you touch your finger on the LCD in the area that you want to be the focus point. The camera does it’s best to achieve focus using the area you touched. It works pretty well and is useful when you want to get more creative with having shallower depth of field.
The camera also gives you some control over aperture, shutter speed, white balance and EV (exposure value) using the touch screen as the input.
The built-in editing software, Intelli-studio, (PC only, MACS not supported) works better than I was expecting. First of all the camcorder itself offers some rudimentary editing functions. This proves to be extremely helpful to edit the very beginning or end of a clip to remove that little bit of camera shake that you often get when you have to shift your hand to begin or end recording. You can also use the in-camera editing to split a clip. I found this intuitive and helpful. Additionally you can combine 2 clips into one… how cool is that?
You can also use the Intelli-studio software provided in the camera which can be run on your PC. This gives you additional photo/video management and editing capabilities, including the ability to create photo slideshows with some of the coolest transitions I’ve seen in editing software. They put some thought into these effects and I really liked them. The software also makes it very easy to upload your videos to YouTube, Flickr, Facebook, etc. You can also copy and transfer videos and photos using Intelli-studio.
The camcorder has an OK built-in microphone. Similar to most camcorders in this price range, there is no capability to use an external mic. Nor is there a headphone jack, but there is a built-in speaker that provides some sound… not great but enough to check that you’ve got audio and enough to enable you to hear the sound in video in quieter environments.
Battery life with the included battery gives me just about 2 hours of recording time. I’ve also got the larger battery Samsung IA-BP420E – Camcorder battery Li-Ion 4200 mAh which gives me much more recording time.
Another feature I find valuable are the “guidelines” that can be displayed on the LCD during recording or photo taking. There are several to choose from, either a crosshairs with safety zone on margins, a quadrant or a thirds grid. Depending on what you’re shooting the grids can be very helpful in framing your shots.
I’m saving the best feature (at least for me) for last and that is the Time Lapse mode. This is a really really cool mode that enables you to take time lapse video. In effect you compress hours into minutes by using this mode. You select the interval that frames are captured, in seconds (every 1, 3 or 5 seconds ) and over what period of time (24, 48 or 72 hours). For instance if you wanted to take a time lapse video of clouds, you could set the camcorder to take one frame every 1 second. You usually will want to use the AC adapter for time lapse recording and a tripod. If you record for 3hours, your resulting time lapse video will be 3 minutes long using the settings I described. It’s very cool what you can do with this mode.
Cons:
The LCD is very glossy. Consequently there is a lot of glare on the screen in certain situations which makes it difficult to see. For instance in brightly lit situations such as outside on a bright sunny day or inside when there are bright lights behind you which are reflecting on the LCD display. The glossy LCD screen also gets covered in fingerprints really easily. The LCD is a touchscreen and it is by way of the touchscreen that the various menu options are accessed. Therefore you will get fingerprints on the screen all the time and in conjunction with the glare, you will be constantly cleaning the screen.
Concerning the touch-screen, it is not the most responsive screen but it’s better than others I have used. A firm but not too firm touch is needed to select menu options on the screen.
I ran into an intermittent problem with my HMX-H205 necessitating that I have it replaced. The problem I experienced is that the camera would display an error on the LCD to “Check Lens Cover” when the camcorder was turned on. Of course this is expected if the lens cover (which is manually operated) is still in the closed position when you turn on your camera. The problem is that when I opened the lens cover, the LCD screen remained blank except for the overlaid textual information. No image of whatever the camcorder was pointed at was being displayed on the LCD. IT was as if the lens cover were still closed even though it was open. This happened intermittently and when it happened, it did not matter if I flicked the lens cover open and closed repeatedly or not. Sometimes I would turn the camera on and off several times too and the error and blank screen persisted.
When I called Samsung tech support, they were unable to offer any fix or suggestion other than to say that the camera was defective and that I should send it in for repair. I returned the camera to Amazon for replacement and that brings me to the next problem… the replacement camcorder had numerous fibers INSIDE the lens assembly. These were big enough fibers that I could not believe what I saw. And since they were inside the lens assembly, there was no way to blow them out or remove them. So I’m sending that camcorder back to Amazon as well. I have posted a photo of the fibers in the customer images gallery at the top of the product page for the H200.
Bottom line is that this is a low-priced camcorder with an interesting feature set that just didn’t work out too well for me. Samsung quality control, from what I experienced, is not very good. My experience with their technical support was also very poor. I used both their Online Live Chat as well as telephone technical support. In both instances the technician was ill-equipped to offer any suitable suggestions or solutions.
The camcorder feels a bit flimsy to me and I did compare it to several others in stores, notably the Canon FS300 Canon FS300 Flash Memory Camcorder (Silver) – 2010 MODEL (which felt slightly more substantial and better built) and a couple Sony models. Other camcorders to consider are the Sanyo VPC-FH1A Sanyo VPC-FH1A Full HD Video and 8 MP Digital Photos (Black) which offers slow-motion mode and some other notable features.
The ports for USB, mini-HDMI and video are not accessible unless the LCD screen has been flipped open. This is a big disadvantage. If you wish to charge your battery via USB (which is a great feature) you need to leave the LCD screen open so that you can access the USB port. This is awkward and invites disaster due to the possibility of damage to the screen. It would also be desirable to be able to hook up the AV or HDMI cable to enable viewing on a TV without having to have the LCD flipped open.
Based on my experience with two defective Samsung H205 camcorders, I cannot give this more than a 2 star rating and that’s being generous. The features don’t really matter if the quality and reliability isn’t there. If I hadn’t had such a horrendous experience with the problems I had I’d consider giving this camcorder 4 stars for what it offers in this price range. But Samsung has to earn that mark and form my experience they have not earned it. My third camcorder is on the way and if it proves to be trouble-free, I’ll update my review as well as my stars, but for now this is only a 2-star product.
Samsung: HMX-H200BN/XAA
Recording at 1,920 x 1,080 60i Full HD resolution enables you to capture the exquisite beauty of each and every moment in rich, natural color and deep, dynamic detail. Movies shoot in Full HD resolution retain their incredible image intensity when they are viewed on Full HD TVs and monitors, giving you and your family a more enjoyable viewing experience.
FEATURES:
- Record & Remember in Full HD - Recording at 1920 x 1080 60i Full HD resolution enables you to capture the exquisite beauty of each and every moment in rich, natural color and deep, dynamic detail. Movies shoot in Full HD resolution retain their incredible image intensity when they are viewed on Full HD TVs and monitors, giving you and your family a more enjoyable viewing experience.
- 20x Optical Zoom - Let your zoom do the walking. With 20x Optical Zoom, the Samsung HMX-H200 series get you as close to the action as you need to be and ensures that every image is presented to perfection, giving you the power to make more emotional home movies.
- Smart OIS (Optical Image Stabilizer) - The Samsung HMX-H200 seriess world-class Schneider KREUZNACH lens comes equipped with an improved Smart OIS(Optical Image Stabilizer) that eliminates the effect of shaky hands or body movement. Minute shifts in the lens compensate for movement, guaranteeing the stability and steadiness of recorded images.
- Innovative BSI CMOS Sensor - The Samsung HMX-H200 series use a 1/4.1 3M Pixel BSI (Back Side Illuminated) CMOS Sensor to deliver double the sensitivity of conventional CMOS Sensors, dramatically reduced image noise and distortion, and enhanced recording quality in low light conditions.
- 4.7 Megapixel Photos – With 4.7M Pixels to play with, you can enjoy the best of both world. High-quality digital photos and Full HD video come to life wi Samsung H200 Full HD Camcorder with 20x Optical Zoom (Black)
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