A SORTA REVIEW
This looks great. As an owner of an older Samsung camcorder and digital camera, I have to give kudos to the Schneider-KREUZNACH Varioplan lens. Apparently, it's not just a marketing ploy. Schneider-KREUZNACH really did design and currently manufactures the lens. The lens have been universally praised in every Samsung camera for the virtual lack of chromatic and geometric aberrations.
My biggest complaint about previous Samsung camcorders was that you can't pause while recording. That was ironic since all their digital cameras can pause during video. Even the $69 models. Then again, virtually no other digital camera makers have pause during video. Nor do most camcorders under $250, as far as I know. Some people claim that it's not a big deal. Trust me, it's a big deal. With pausing, you end up with one file per session rather than lots of snippets that you later have to merge. Merging is not only time consuming, but can also degrade the video since the CODEC needs to recompress the points of merger. And playback is painful because there is no slideshow function for videos. Therefore, you have to manually press PLAY every minute or so to see the next video. And this can be very annoying if it's attached to the TV and you don't have a remote. Finally, every new snippet has overhead so it also takes up more memory, i.e. every snippet needs space for the title. date, specs, etc.
Well, Hallelujah, Samsung has finally put the Pause function in this camcorder! And clearly it's a big deal since the feature is mentioned twice! If I didn't already have a camcorder, I'd buy it just for this feature which no other company has for a camcorder of this price.
and unlike the pathetic JVC camcorder Woot before, this has OPTICAL stabilization, STILL photos and STEREO recording. The only two major cons are 1) At only 10x, the optical zoom is relatively low for a camcorder; 2) The still photo mode doesn't have flash. WHile this is an unusual feature, my Samsung camcorder does have flash.
From the description:
- Easy Operation via the 2.7” wide LCD screen allows the user to perform a variety of functions, including a pause function allowing you to stop and work out the best angle for your recording experience...
[...]
- Samsung Record Pause technology has also been introduced, allowing the user to take brief pauses in filming before re-starting, so they don’t need to merge files when finished
