Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Samsung Camcorders Stay Out of Your Face


By Rik Fairlie
Samsung’s two new camcorders have a cool design feature that you may not notice at first glance. The ultracompact SMX-C14 and SMX-C10 both employ the same Active Angle Lens design as their forerunner, the $500 HMX-R10.

I spent some hands-on time with the HMX-R10 at a recent Samsung event, and the Active Angle Lens design is both cool and clever. The lens is tilted downward, so the camcorder stays out of your line of sight when shooting, enabling you to interact with your subjects as you record them. In other words, there is no camcorder attached to your face. It takes a few minutes to get the hang of it, but the Active Angle Lens design brings a whole new feel to shooting video.
Both the SMX-C14 and SMX-C10 should handle very comfortably, based on my time with the HMX-R10. The space-age design is pretty sweet, too.
The SMX-C14 has 16 gigabytes of internal memory, plus an SD/SDHC memory card slot for expansion. The SMX-C10 is strictly bring-your-own SD memory card. Samsung says you can record more than six hours of video with 16 gigabytes of memory.
Both models shoot video at a high-definition resolution of 720 by 480 pixels, and also feature a 10X optical zoom, image stabilization, and a swiveling 2.7-inch LCD. Other features include time-lapse recording that enables you to record images at preset intervals that range from every 1 second to 30 seconds. Samsung ships both with software that lets you connect to computers via USB and edit and play video without installing software on the PC. They also offer a one-button straight-to-YouTube capability.
Look for the SMX-C14 and SMX-C10 in July. No word yet from Samsung on pricing.

nytimes.com----Personal Tech

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