Samsung SMX C10

The SMX C10 from Samsung is a pocket-sized camcorder that uses SD memory cards to store the video it records. The camera has a 2.7in screen and a 10x optical zoom lens. It records at a maximum resolution of 720x576 pixels – not quite high definition - in the widely compatible MPEG-4 format.

Using the Samsung was a breeze, with easy-to-follow menus and simple operation. We particularly liked the button that resets all the functions to normal so if you’ve been experimenting with things it’s easy to quickly get back to the standard settings.

The battery gives roughly 160 minutes of recording between charges, which is impressive. You can charge the camera through its USB connection, which saves the user from having to carrying the power adapter around. On an 8GB SD memory card the camera will store about three hours of footage at the highest resolution or about five hours in the standard mode.

Included on the Samsung is an application called Intelli-Studio which is an impressive video-editing and sorting tool. It lets the user edit and add transitions and effects to their video and to share video using websites such as Youtube and Flickr. As the software is actually on the camera you can install it on any PC, making the C10 a truly portable video and editing device.

One slightly surprising omission from the product is its inability to capture still images on the camera. It seems strange that this isn't an option as other similar cameras are capable of taking both video and still shots. You can use the Intelli-Studio package to grab still from shot video, but that’s not a great way to do it as quality can be low.

While the Samsung SMX C10 was very easy to use and provides a simple method of uploading video to the web, its video quality isn't as good as we'd have liked.

Overall the C10 is a fair camera, but a lack of still picture capability and the average video quality both count against it.