Samsung HMX-R10

Ease of Use (7.25)

The Samsung HMX-R10 is a very easy camcorder to use. Only a handful of buttons are located on the camcorder's body, which gives it a less daunting and cluttered appearance. To make things even simpler, Samsung includes an Easy Q setting on the HMX-R10. Turning on Easy Q puts the camcorder into an entirely automated mode. This means things like exposure and focus are handled by the camcorder while you are able to concentrate on framing the image (zoom controls are also still available in Easy Q mode). In an effort to fool-proof the camcorder, Easy Q mode even blocks access to the R10's menu system—so, essentially, you're forced to use entirely automated controls.

If you want to experiment with some of the R10's additional features, you have to turn Easy Q off. This is where things get a bit more difficult. The touch screen LCD system is horrendous for making manual adjustments. It simply isn't accurate and we often found ourselves pressing the on-screen buttons numerous times before we got a response from the camcorder. There are some well-implemented touch screen features, however. The Touch Point focus system works seamlessly with the touch screen, as does the manual one-push white balance. Menus are fairly easy to navigate using the touch screen, although there is no info or help button to assist newbies. The provided instruction manual is also pretty good, although you need to access it via the provided disk or download it from Samsung's website.

The only other worrisome aspect of the HMX-R10 is its unique design and handling issues. Traditional camcorder users may be put off by the angled lens and lack of a right-side hands strap, which means the camcorder may take some getting used to. Overall, however, we found the design to be fairly easy to use once we got the hang of it.

Handling (6.5)

The Samsung HMX-R10 is particularly unique for a number of reasons. First, it has a tilted lens that is 25-degrees higher than the rest of the camcorder body. This means, if you want to get a straight-on shot, the natural position for holding the camcorder is at an angle. This is very different from the eye-level shooting most experienced videographers are used to. Does this lens design make for more comfortable shooting? The answer is, sometimes. If you like shooting close to your body or from your hip, the tilted lens can work quite well. It feels a little awkward holding it in the traditional manner, however, as we show in the photograph below.

The tilted lens means you must hold the R10 at an angle to get a straight shot.

There aren't too many buttons on the HMX-R10, as most functions are engaged by using the camcorder's touch screen interface. Holding the R10 with your fingers wrapped around its top and your thumb at its back gives you the most control over the camcorder. Your thumb lines up quite well with the zoom toggle and stop/start record button this way. The camcorder is quite slippery holding it this way, however, as it includes no right-side hand strap. Samsung does supply a brown lanyard that attaches to the right side of the camcorder, but it isn't very comfortable and it doesn't offer much (if any) wrist support.

Extra controls are located on the left side of the LCD panel.

The camcorder feels more comfortable when holding it with your thumb on its top, as seen in the photograph below. In addition to feeling better in your palm, this method also allows you to get a better grip on the R10. The curved shape of the camcorder's back side fits quite well into your palm when you hold it in this manner. Of course, when you hold the camcorder this way, you don't have easy access to the rear-mounted zoom toggle and start/stop record button. This is why Samsung conveniently includes these buttons on the LCD panel (see above photo). So, you can hold the camcorder as seen below and use your other hand to control the zoom and start/stop recording. These LCD panel buttons are designed pretty well and they are better than similarly-placed buttons featured on camcorders from other manufacturers.

The R10 feels more comfortable when holding it with your thumb on its top.

The LCD on the R10 uses touch screen technology, so you can expect the LCD to get cluttered with greasy fingerprints after a few minutes of use. There's nothing really new about the R10's touch screen—it really isn't much different than the ones featured on Sanyo and Panasonic camcorders. Manual controls are a terrible pain to adjust using the touch system, while menus aren't too bad to navigate.

The HMX-R10's body, which comes in black or silver, doesn't attract fingerprints due to its matte finish. It does, however, scratch somewhat easily. The R10 doesn't come with a lens cap either, so you have to be very careful when you transport the camcorder. We would have liked to see Samsung take some extra steps towards making the R10 a more durable product, especially since it's such a compact, portable device.

The camcorder has no right-side hand strap, but does come with a brown lanyard

Stabilisation (1.64)

The Samsung HMX-R10 has a digital image stabilization option that can be turned on and off while you're shooting video. We'd prefer the camcorder to have an optical image stabilization system (OIS), but that feature is usually reserved for high-end models. The R10's digital image stabilization setting didn't produce very good results in our testing. With our low shake test, the camcorder's DIS reduced the shake by 16%. In our high shake test, however, the camcorder showed no sign of improving the shakiness of the video. (More on how we test stabilisation.)

Portability (9.82)

The HMX-R10 is very light for a mid-range HD camcorder, although the 'average' weight amongst camcorders is definitely getting lower every year. The camcorder weighs only 229g without its battery pack. The pack adds on roughly 30 extra grams, so the total weight is approximately 260g or so. This is much lighter than the Sanyo VPC-HD2000 (311g) and the larger JVC GZ-X900 (298g). To assist with portability, the Samsung R10 ships with a lightly padded pouch that snugly fits the camcorder and closes with a Velcro snap.

Still, there are plenty of smaller camcorders on the market than the HMX-R10. The ultra-compact flash camcorders like the Flip Ultra HD and the Sony Webbie HD models can be transported in a pocket with ease. The HMX-R10 can fit in your pocket, but its thick, horizontal design would probably make things uncomfortable. Also, the lack of any internal memory on the R10 means you must remember to pack an SD/SDHC card along with the camcorder. We do like that Samsung put all of the ports right on the body of the camcorder itself. This avoids the need for a bulky docking station, which is something both the JVC GZ-X900 and Sanyo VPC-HD2000 require.

Weight & Size
Weight	229g (8.07 oz.) without battery pack
Size	38.3 x 56.8 x 128.2mm (1.5 x 2.23 x 5.04 inches)

Battery Life (5.5)

The HMX-R10 lasted for 1 hour, 50 minutes, and 18 seconds in our battery life test. This is a good showing for such a small camcorder and it is better than the battery life we tested on the JVC GZ-X900 and Panasonic HDC-HS20. These camcorders, with the exception of the HDC-HS20, have enclosed battery compartments. This means you can't load in a larger battery pack if you want longer-lasting performance. The Samsung R10 has its enclosed battery pack on the bottom of the camcorder, in the same compartment that houses the SD/SDHC memory card slot. (More on how we test battery life.)

Battery Life Comparisons

The enclosed battery compartment is located on the bottom of the camcorder.

LCD & Viewfinder (7.99)

The Samsung HMX-R10 doesn't have a viewfinder, so all your filming must be done using the 2.7-inch touch screen LCD. The screen has a decent resolution of 230,000 pixels and its 2.7-inch size is average for a mid-range camcorder. It can rotate up to 180 degrees (just like most camcorder LCDs), and it features a couple of brightness, colour, and contrast settings.

The most important aspect of the LCD is that it uses touch screen technology. If you hate touch screens, there really isn't anything different about the R10's that will change your mind. It functions much like any other touch screen, although we did find it to be a bit more accurate than Panasonic's system. Unfortunately, the R10's touch screen does not have a calibration option, which is something featured on Panasonic and Sony models.

The 2.7-inch touch screen LCD

On the LCD panel, to the left of the screen, are a set of buttons—Q. Menu, Zoom, and an extra Start/Stop Record button. These buttons are located here to give you better access to them when holding the camcorder with two hands, you can zoom with your left hand while holding the camcorder with your right hand. It also gives you the option of holding the R10 with your thumb on top of the camcorder, rather than with your fingers wrapped around the top.

Brightness and colour can be set on the LCD, each with 36 increments of control. There's also a feature called LCD Enhancer that boosts contrast. Samsung claims this setting will help out when shooting in bright daylight, but we didn't notice too much of a difference. To conserve battery life, the LCD can be set to automatically dim if the camcorder doesn't do anything for more than 2 minutes. Pressing any button (or tapping the screen) brings the LCD brightness back up.

Menus (6.5)

The menu system on the Samsung HMX-R10 isn't overly complex, but there are quite a few options on the camcorder so things do get a bit crowded. To access the camcorder's menu, you tap the small icon in the lower right of the LCD screen. This icon is the same whether you're in video mode, photo mode, or even playback mode. Once you open the menu, you'll see two tabs at the top of the screen. The first is a collection of Recording Options, while the second tab (labelled with an icon of a gear) is full of administrative Settings.

The Record Options menu in video mode		The Record Options menu in still mode

The Record Options tab has 6 separate pages of settings in video mode and 7 pages in still mode. You can cycle through these pages by pressing the up and down arrows on the left of the LCD. Cycling through the menu pages is pretty simple with the touch screen and the menu system is fairly responsive overall. The options are spaced out enough (4 options per page) so that it is easy to select the specific one you are looking for. The Record Options menu has a see-through background, which is helpful when you turn on features that alter the appearance of your image (like white balance, for example).

The Settings Menu

The Settings Menu has a similar design to the Record Options menu, although its background isn't see-through and it has 7 pages of options. The Settings Menu is also the same whether you access it in video mode, photo mode, or playback mode. The options in the Settings menu control things like LCD brightness, camcorder sound effects, date, and time. You can also set the language of the menus here, and the Samsung R10 has 29 language options.

The Video Playback menu		The Still Image Playback menu

In both Playback Mode, the R10 offers 2 pages of menu options. The options are different whether you're in Still Image or Video Playback, however (see above). The HMX-R10 also has a Quick Menu feature that is opened by pressing the Q. Menu button on the LCD panel. The Quick Menu is basically a set of four menu options that are chosen by you — you can select whatever 4 menu options you use most often on the R10. Photo Mode, Video Mode, and Playback mode each have their own customizable Quick Menus. This is actually a very handy feature and it makes the R10's long list of menu options easier to pair down—as long as you don't use more than 4 menu options on a regular basis.

Samsung HMX-R10 Comparisons
JVC GZ-X900	Sanyo VPC-HD2000	Canon HF S100