My birthday present from my parents was a Samsung HMX-U10 HD video camera. It has been brought out to combat the flip and the flip HD.
Its a very nice little camera. Its extremely light and compact with a nice design. The interface is very easy to use though the touch buttons are a bit fussy at times, especially the left button. Sometimes when you press left you’ll get the enter button instead. I’ve just learnt to use the right button!
Its 10mp and HD, I have to say the HD is very grainy but when its reduced down to a youtube size I imagine thats negligible? Unfortunately I can’t use the built in sharing technology because its only for PC! The built in software does let you cut up videos from the device which is quite useful when you want to remove yourself from the video!
I took it with me to the London Aquarium to test it out. I had one problem where it wouldn’t turn off but other than that its a good little camera!
Rock pools – ‘thats awesome’ from Han on Vimeo.
Another feature that niggles me a bit is the inclusion of a still photograph option, thats great and all especially on a 10mp camera, but no flash!
They give you all the cables in the box and a little round disk that you screw into the tripod hole to change the orientation of the camera on the tripod.
I found your blog trying to find other early Samsung u10 adopters. I received mine a week ago, and my impressions are about the same as yours.
Did you adjust the video quality to “super fine?” I was less than impressed with the default setting, “fine,” and noticed a decent improvement in grain on “super fine.”
Without another pocket cam to compare to— it was down to the Flip HD (frame jitter when panning), Vado HD (very poor audio), and Samsung— I’m still on the fence about keeping it.
I tried fine and super fine on all resolutions.
I dont have another to compare it too either, but I like that its lightweight and the sound is really good too. For such a small and comparatively cheap camera I think its done a pretty good job!
Let me know if you decide to keep it!
I love it – I’ve come up with a fantastic solution to its rubbish focusing. Put a magnifying glass in front of the lens and the quality and the amount of things you can film quickly increases!