Samsung's beefed up its camcorder lineup for 2009 with some pretty sweet options.
Joshua Goldman
Managing Editor Josh Goldman is a laptop expert and has been writing about and reviewing them since built-in Wi-Fi was an optional feature. He also covers almost anything connected to a PC, including keyboards, mice, USB-C docks and PC gaming accessories. In addition, he writes about cameras, including action cams and drones. And while he doesn't consider himself a gamer, he spends entirely too much time playing them.
The HMX-H106, HMX-H105, and HMX-H104 feature 64GB, 32GB, and 16GB SSDs, respectively. (A fourth model, the HMX-H100, gets the features of the other models, but relies on SDHC cards for storage. The SSD models have SDHC slots for memory card storage, too.)
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Samsung HMX-H106 H-series camcorders
The benefits of an SSD are low heat emission, faster start-up times, no moving parts, and in turn, better battery life. At least in comparison with a typical hard-disk drive model. The larger sizes are nice as well--especially for HD--but the 3 hours of recording time possible with 16GB of storage is plenty.
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Samsung HMX-H106 H-series camcorders
As for their other specifications, the H-series models seem well equipped with a 10x optical zoom, 2.2-megapixel sensor, 1/4.5-inch CMOS, 2.7-inch touch-screen LCD, and Samsung's new optical image stabilizer.
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Samsung H-series camcorders
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Samsung R10
It's a CMOS-based, full-HD compact model capable of snapping off 9-megapixel still photos that stores both video and photos to SD/SDHC cards. This could be a solid choice for capturing both video and photos that are equally as good and that's comfortable to use for both.
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Samsung R10
And I say that because I've never found a camcorder that's comfortable for taking photos or a still camera that's comfortable for capturing more than a few minutes of video at a time. However, the R10 has a 5x zoom lens that's angled at 25 degrees so you can grip the camera more naturally in front of you for both photos and video--or at least that's what I'm hoping for.
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Samsung SMX-F34
Samsung continues its line of soda-can-shaped, standard-definition camcorders with the SMX-F34. It's based around the company's 2008 flash-based model--the SC-MX20--but adds the capability to capture 800x600-pixel resolution photos to its 16GB of internal memory or SD/SDHC cards.
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Samsung SMX-F34
The F34 records video in H.264 format up to a resolution of 720x480 and out front is a 34x zoom lens. If you like to share your videos online, the F34 is designed to do so with minimal effort on your part. The SMX-F34 will be available in four colors: Midnight Black, Sunset Red, Galaxy Silver, and Deep Ocean Blue. They also feature Samsung's swivel hand-grip for comfortably shooting at low angles (and something I've always liked on its camcorders).
