The HMX-H 105 Samsung Digital Camcorder – How Badly Do You Want a Solid-State Drive?
By Kent R Kerr
Every camera manufacturer have a choice of features to design into their product to have it stand apart in some way. With the Samsung digital camcorder, the company has for some time now felt that the best way to stand apart from the crowd is to make sure its cameras are endowed with high-tech solid-state drives instead of hard disks or flash cards. Now people buy video cameras for performance, for quality, for ease of use and for easy and capacious storage. They don’t really usually go after expensive high-tech storage that offers few apparent benefits. With a solid-state drive, a device that is usually far smaller than a traditional hard drive, it really should allow for a camera that is far smaller. The HMX-H105 Samsung digital camcorder, even if it does use a 32GB solid-state drive, really is larger than any other video camera in its class. If they had used a regular hard drive, they could conceivably have sold it for less than the $350 that goes for now. One wonders if the solid-state drive used is merely a marketing gimmick.
The HMX-H105 Samsung digital camcorder is an attractive-looking thing. It features a curved screen housing, and it has a touchscreen. Still, the shape makes it a little difficult to hang on to. Even if it is built completely out of plastic, it feels pretty solid. The ergonomics are well thought-out as far as button placement is concerned. In a little pop-up hatch, you’ll find connectors for mini-HDMI, USB and everything else. The fact that the 2.7 inch screen is touch sensitive, does happen to be a major plus. Still, touching accurately on so small a screen can be a little troublesome. Not to mention, the screen isn’t really a responsive one. You often have to touch repeatedly to make anything work. Still, in a surprise move for Samsung, the software is really well sorted-out. All the menus are exactly the way you would intuitively want them.
The HMX-H105 Samsung digital camcorder records at 1,920×1,080/60i. So it isn’t full HD (not with a 2.2 MP sensor). Compare it to other cameras in its class, in this price range, and you do find that the competition has better features. The Panasonic HDC SD 60K or the Sony Handy cam HDR CX 150 for instance, sell for nearly the same price. And they offer far better technology and quality. The video quality on this camera is good, without being superlative. Even the optical image stabilizer works well. Coming to the way it shoots video, the picture quality is usually about average. But the autofocus on this camera seems particularly unresponsive and lethargic. Lowlight shooting doesn’t really do so well on this camera. It does look like Samsung really depended on the solid-state drive thing to sell this camera. Some people actually might go for it.
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