Samsung SC-X300L First Impressions Reviewby James MurrayPublished on Jan 18, 2007 12:00 PM 
|
|
Samsung has announced the release of two nearly identical “hands-free” Flash/SD memory standard definition camcorders last week at the 2007 Consumer Electronics Show, following in the tradition of the their sports cam line. The rubber-coated SC-X300L features 2GB of onboard flash memory and second, external helmet cam. The entry-level SC-X300 (omitting the "L" in the name) ships with 1GB of memory and no helmet cam. This review will focus on the fully pimped-out SC-X300L, though the handling, manual control suite, and settings are all virtually identical in both. Both camcorders have a 1/6", 680K pixel CCD, a 10x optical zoom lens, and a 2.0" LCD with a resolution of 230K pixels. This camcorder records MPEG-4 video at a maximum resolution of 720 x 480 at 30 fps. The Samsung SC-X300L has an initial MSRP of $449.99, while the SC-X300 will sell for about $349.99.
Just because it's a sports cam, that does not mean that we let it off the hook for performance. There are a lot of options out there, and even though, Samsung markets this for a specific purpose, that doen't mean it's your best option. MiniDV camcorders are smaller and cheaper than ever and will blow this out of the water in performance. The portability has its merits, but we're still not convinced.