Performance

The Samsung SC-X210L’s primary lens uses a 1/6" CCD with 680K gross pixels. The secondary, external lens, which is powered by and sends a signal to the main body via a cable, has a 1/4 CMOS sensor with 320K gross pixels. Don’t let the larger CCD size fool you. The pixel count is much smaller, and the lens and imager system as a whole as of a much lower quality than the primary lens.

At 3000 lux, the primary lens produced a pretty poor image, considering what else is available in its price range. The picture is blurry and finer detail, like the text of the labels, is hard to make out. In order to increase the apparent sharpness, it looks like Samsung boosted the in-camera sharpening. As a result, black lines and borders appear too contrasty. There is a significant amount of compression artifacts, which create the stair-stepping along curved and diagonal lines. These same artifacts are often found in the MPEG2 compression of DVD and HDD camcorders. While there are many excellent MPEG4 codecs, the one found on the SC-X210 is not among them.

Finally, the manual white balance was not particularly good, and skewed the entire picture towards the green-grey. For comparison’s sake, we also looked at the image in automatic white balance. You can see that the image here appeared a little too red-orange, and a manually-adjusted white balance is preferable, despite its deficiencies.

Last year’s SC-X105L did not offer a manual white balance at all, and the image appeared far redder than even the X210 in auto mode. And despite our complaints regarding this year’s model, things have obviously not improved. The X105 produced a much fuzzier image and a remarkable amount of noise. The compression artifacts appear to be about the same as this year’s model.

The JVC Everio GZ-MG30 was last year’s entry level HDD (hard disk drive) camcorder, and is comparable in many ways to the X210. Both record to internal memory and SD/MMC cards, run within similar price ranges, and have 1/6" CCDs. The MG30 had a much better color performance and had looked sharper. MPEG compression artifacting was only marginally less noticeable though. Also, the MG30’s whites were nearing blow-out at 3000 lux.

We also looked at two comparatively priced Sonys, a DVD camcorder, which is comparable by ease of use, and a MiniDV, which would match the durability and shock-resistance of the X210. Both offer a 1/6" CCD. The Sony DCR-DVD92, last year’s entry level DVD camcorder, had only marginally better color performance, though it was more even it its color balance, while the X210 was a little heavy on the greens. The compression artifacts were slightly smaller, which made for a less pixilated look along curved and diagonal lines. The DVD92 did, however, have fine fuzz along borders and lines that the X210 did not.

The Sony DCR-HC42, a MiniDV camcorder from last year, had a better color performance, and a sharper looking image overall. The image did suffer from blue noise scattered throughout the image, something Sony seems to have corrected this year.

Finally, the Canon Elura 100 is a comparatively priced MiniDV camcorder from this year. It offers a larger imager, a much sharper image, much better color performance, and virtually none of the artifacting that was found in the X210 and DVD camcorders.

The Samsung SC-X210L also comes with the external lens, of course, one of the most popular features with the series. The image here shows the chart under the same 3000 lux conditions. The lens obviously suffers from some barrel distortion. This may be inevitable when shooting subjects up close. Besides that, no real problems here. Oh, except that *the image is entirely unsuable*, completely blown out and entirely lacking in fine detail. There is no zoom control, nor is there focus adjustment, exposure adjustment, white balance adjustment, or any sort of adjustment at all to correct for this. What else can we say about this image? It’s bad. Use with caution. The same can be said for the primary lens. At lower light levels, the images are not quite this blown out, but there was always some barrel distortion, and the image was always noisy. For more performance results on this lens, read the Low Light section below.

Video Resolution*(12.6)*

The Samsung SC-X210L was tested for the resolution of its video by shooting a standard ISO 12233 resolution chart, then taking stills from that footage and running them through Imatest imaging software. The primary lens of the main body produced 446.6 lines of horizontal resolution (with an average clipping of 2.23%) and 281.8 lines of vertical resolution (with an average clipping of 1.35%) for an approximate resolution of 125851.88. The external lens produced a 252.7 lines of horizontal resolution and 264.1 lines of vertical resolution, for an approximate resolution of 66738.07.

Clipping occurs when Imatest cannot read a portion of the image, in this case because some information bottomed out (red, green, and blue channel all read as zero). This happens sometimes with camcorders of lesser quality.

The chart below shows how the X210 fared against the competition.

Low Light Performance*(1.8)*

We tested the SC-X210’s performance in low light by shooting at 60 lux and 15 lux, a challenge for nearly any camcorder. The relatively small 1/6" chip is not expected to produce great results. The external lens was also tested.

At 60 lux, the primary lens gave a rather poor performance. Much of the color information had been lost and noise has increased greatly. Throughout the chart, blue noise appears, which was a common problem in last year’s Sonys. On the plus side, the camcorder did not seem to have any problem focusing.

Last year’s Samsung SC-X105 had better color reporting at this light level, but noise and sharpness were an problem. As in bright light, the image was extremely fuzzy. Noise levels were no higher than in the X210, and the blue noise was also an issue.

The JVC GZ-MG30 employs a powerful auto gain control (AGC) that can be turned on and off. With the AGC off, the image is much darker than the X210. With the AGC on (which is our recommendation) there is a great deal of noise and poor color definition. The only positive factor over the Samsung is the overall brightness.

The Sony DCR-DVD92 has better color performance, despite no noticeable improvement in brightness over the Samsung. Perhaps the camcorder’s auto saturation levels manage to boost it through the darkness of the image. Noise is heavy, but it’s a black noise, which is better than the blue noise of the X210. The Sony DCR-HC42 has very saturated colors, too saturated to be accurate, but a boon if you’re just trying to figure out what those colors are supposed to be in the dark. There were significant amounts of blue noise in the image.

The Canon Elura 100 retained a good deal of crispness to finer details of edges, but noise increased noticeably from 3000 lux. Color performance was a bit strong than the X210.

The SC-X210’s external lens managed a much brighter image, thanks to its larger CMOS sensor. But the reduced pixel count took a heavy toll on image quality overall. Looking at the image here, you’ll see that hardly any detailed information can be made out. Also, the lack of a zoom meant that we had to push the lens up very close to the chart, which created extreme barrel distortion. However, there is a legitimate trade-off to consider here. At lower light levels, with objects that are far away (past 10 feet), you may want to have better color performance than detail. In that instance, you may actually consider using the external lens and its larger sensor.

At 15 lux, the X210’s primary lens is awash with noise, and lacks any notable color information. This is essentially an unusable image.

Last year’s SC-X105 was brighter, but the lack of a manual white balance skewed the entire picture red-orange, staving off any of the color accuracy that might have been there to find. The JVC MG30 was just as dark as the X210, but managed to keep the noise at a finer grain (hardly much of a consolation).

The Sony DVD92 was a brighter, clearly a result of auto gain, but there was virtually no color information. The Sony HC42 is speckled with blue noise like an Easter egg, and no better than any of the other camcorders in this category. The Canon Elura 100 was the sole competitor to put up a fight. While it fell behind at 60 lux, when lowered to 15 lux, the image looks hardly any different. Noise is up, but the colors are easily recognizable and well-defined.

At 15 lux, the X210’s external lens is much brighter than the primary lens, but again, lacks a good deal of detail. There is a strong red-orange tint due to the inability to manual white balance the external lens, but colors are still recognizable. The performance is nowhere near the Canon Elura 100’s, but the large CMOS sensor does offer some benefits that the X210’s primary image does not.

Wide Angle* (9.0)*

We tested the SC-X210 for the width of its field of view in its only aspect ratio, 4:3. The field measured 45 degrees. This is an average width for 4:3, but give that it lacks a widescreen option, it could have been a little larger.

 

Format

Compression* (4.0)*

The SC-X210L records video in the MPEG4 AVI format at two sizes, 720 x 480 and 352 x 240. The latter is intended for streaming web video in small file sizes, the former for television or, presumably, larger streaming video clips. While MPEG4 may slowly be superseding MPEG2 as the format of choice for video, this particular codec leaves a great deal to be desired. Video quality is bad and compression artifacts (that "pixilated" look) are rampant. There are three quality settings for each resolution size: Super Fine, Fine, and Normal. These correspond to bit rate, but the rates are not listed in the manual.

Media* (2.0)*

The X210 contains a solid-state internal memory of 1GB, twice the size of that found in last year’s X105. The camcorder also accepts SD and MMC card in a port on the front of its body. Cards over 2GB in capacity will not read properly. With this much internal memory, you can capture 29 minutes of super fine quality video at 720 x 480, 43 minutes of fine quality, and 65 minutes of normal quality.

Both JVC and Sony manufacture camcorders with internal memory that far exceed the meager capacities of the X210, running between 20 and 30GB. Their image quality generally exceeds that of the Samsung as well. Of course, those larger capacities take up space, and part of the X210’s appeal is its small size. But how often are you carrying a laptop on your surfboard to dump the video when you reach the 29 minute mark?

Editing* (6.25)*

Editing the MPEG4 footage from the Samsung X210 requires downloading the proper codec, which comes on a CD-ROM in the box. This disc, called DV Media Pro 1.0, also includes Ulead Photo Express SE for still editing. A second disc includes Ulead VideoStudio SE DVD v9.0. This video editing software gives you the same rudimentary editing features that ship with nearly all camcorders these days. You can import video, stills, and music, then tie it all together with a few cheesy transitions and export it to a DVD, MiniDV camcorder, or MPEG or AVI file. It's better than last year's software though, which shipped with Miniket Media.

The software is actually split up into two distinct programs: Movie Wizard and Video Studio Editor. The first is the very basic functions for those likely to be intimidated by the editing process. The latter has more features, including a one-touch color enhancement tool and image rotation tool (great for righting a crooked image from the external lens).

ULead welcome screen, which lets you choose between two editing programs

Movie Wizard is the program for absolute beginners.

The VideoStudio Editor program offers a more options and control.*

Tour

**The Front ***(5.0)*

The Samsung SC-X210L is specifically marketed as a "Sports Camcorder" and the unique design of this model reveals that Samsung has gone to great lengths to appeal to a market that values ease of use, durability, and action-oriented shooting with the external camera. As the tour will show, some aspects of the camcorder’s design are thoughtful while others leave much to be desired, while overall there have been some improvements over the first generation of this Sports Camcorder, last year’s SC-X105.

Beginning in the front, at the top of the camcorder sits the very small lens, with roughly a 22mm filter diameter. The true size is not given in the specs, but there is no thread and it could not take a filter. Unlike the rest of the camera, the lens is shiny and metallic and protrudes slightly forward from the body, making it potentially vulnerable to impacts. The camcorder has a 10x optical zoom, focal length of 2.4mm – 24mm, a maximum aperture of 1.8 in wide angle, and a minimum illumination of 3 lux.

Protecting the lens (the most delicate exposed part of the camera) with rubber, like the external lens, could have helped to address this vulnerability. Directly below the lens is a tiny flash bulb. Below the flash is a slim vertical door housing the USB port and the SD/MMC card memory slot. Unfortunately, this door is made of flimsy plastic and is prone to flipping open with the slightest pressure, and the hinge is weak. For a camcorder supposedly designed for some rough treatment, this is a big liability. If the door accidentally popped open during shooting, it could easily break off exposing the USB port and card slot to dirt, sidewalk scum, blood etc. While some medical tape could remedy the door’s weakness, Samsung should have made the door and hinge more robust.

**The Right Side ***(5.0)*

The right side of the SC-X210L holds the battery, and the design shows some improvement over last year’s SC-X105L. While the battery protruded out slightly from the camera body in the first-generation of this camera, this year it sits flush with the body (in fact it’s so closely integrated it’s easy to overlook) and is covered with the same black rubber as most of the camera. This placement both gives the camera cleaner profile, and should improve durability. The one major drawback to the battery design is the battery release button, which is tiny and requires a lot of pressure with a thumbnail to release. Needless to say, releasing the battery under adverse conditions would be tough. However in another thoughtful bit of design, once released, the battery pops up enough to enable easy removal, but is still held securely in the battery bay. This feature makes it unlikely that the battery would fall off of the camera while swapping batteries on a chairlift or dangling from a hanging belay.

**The Back ***(8.0)*

As with the SC-X105L, the back of the SC-X210L features most of the camcorder’s interface, and has been significantly reengineered. Many of the changes are good – but not all. Starting from the top is the tiny zoom toggle which sits inside a disc-style button. Pressing the left side of the button engages Play while the right side of the button is for Record. Using the disc button requires fine finger control, and the fact that it surrounds the zoom toggle is questionable; it puts all the major image capture controls within about 5mm of one another! While this certainly saves space, keeping the record and zoom controls separate as in the SC-X105L seems a better bet for the active target market. The zoom toggle is also tiny, and zoom control allows for gross adjustments, but not fine ones. Using any of these important buttons would be impossible with a gloved hand. Snowboarders interested in this camera should be forewarned.

Below the disc button and zoom toggle is a menu navigation joystick, new this year, and a big improvement over last year’s model as it enables quick access to menu features, and works intuitively – pressing left moves left, up moves up, etc. Pressing down on the joystick selects the highlighted menu option. A small Menu button, used to call up the menu is below the joystick, and below that is a Mode button which switches quickly between the SC-X110L’s various modes (video, still camera, mp3 player, etc.) Below the Mode button is the DC-in, recessed into the camera body and covered with a plastic hatch. On our test model, the DC-in hatch fit poorly and was prone to popping open. While that may not sound like a big deal, poorly engineered details like this (and the previously mentioned USB/flash memory hatch) do not inspire confidence in a product. Finally, below the DC-in port is the proprietary AV jack.

The external camera plug uses both the AV and 1/8 jack (the latter likely used for ghost power). This means, however, that you cannot use the jack for headphones., Unlike all the camcorder’s other ports, the AV multimedia jack is not protected by a hatch, leaving it prone to the usual dust, snow and grit that one encounters during extreme shooting. Finally, at the base of the camera’s back is a strap hook where a lanyard can be attached. While very small, the strap hook seems to be sturdy enough for a camcorder of this size.

 

**The Left Side ***(6.5)*

The left side of the SC-X210L features the 2 inch LCD screen, which rotates though 270 degrees and has a 230,000 pixel resolution – truly impressive for a camera in this price range, but a feature that is a bit lost when considering the poor-quality video that the camcorder produces. Below the screen are two buttons, Display and Delete. The Display button turns the on-screen text on or off, and the LCD itself on or off, presumably to lengthen battery life, though without the LCD you’d be shooting blind. We’d hate to see you miss a distant shot of sick move on the other side of the skate park. The delete button is used to call up the delete function while in File Browse mode. When open, the LCD bay reveals the built-in speaker, the "MP3/External Camera Module HOLD switch" which and most importantly the POWER button.

Interestingly, Samsung has placed the built-in microphone on the outside or back of the LCD screen. During active use, it is likely that users would take advantage of the 270 degree rotational ability of the screen, and that would probably in turn affect the microphone’s performance. For example, if shooting an ollie from low-angle a couple of inches from the street, with the LCD screen positioned up for easy viewing, the mic would be pointed directly at the ground. If sound quality is important to you, take note of the on-camera mic placement on a component that will not always be facing the action. On the plus side, as with the battery, the LCD screen folds flush with the camera body, and is rubberized for a sleek and low-profile look.

The Top* (5.5)*

The top of the SC-X110L has nothing but a Record/Power/Charging Indicator. When charging, the light glows yellow; when the camcorder is on, the light turns blue, and when recording, the light turns red like most camcorder tally lights. When the unit is off, the light turns off. There is no accessory shoe, nor could Samsung have fit one if they tried.

External Lens* (no score) *

The external lens will be a main selling point of the SC-X110L for many users, if responses to our review of last year’s SC-X105L had anything to say. The barrel, covered in the same rubber as the main body, measures a little over 3.5" long and is 1 1/2" wide. The business end of the barrel features a lens protected behind clear plastic and surrounded by black rubber. New this year, the external lens is phantom powered from the main body. To turn it on, you push a button located about 2/3 of the way down the connector cable. The in-line button doubles as both the external lens power on/off button, and as the Record on/off button, and is placed on an oblong housing. Also on the oblong housing is an indicator light that glows blue when the external lens is on; red when in Record mode. On the reverse side of the oblong housing is a sturdy plastic clip large enough to affix to bulky fabric (i.e. a snowboard parka) or a climbing harness.

The bottom of the external lens (top), the power button on the cable, and the back of the power button 

The ability to run this camera independent of the camcorder body is one of SC-X210L’s cooler features. Yet another cool part of the external lens design is the fact that you can rotate the lens relative to the lens body through 180 degrees. This means that if you strap the camera to the side of your helmet, you can still get a normal vertically-oriented picture by rotating the lens about 90 degrees from the body. This feature did not exist on last year's model. But missing this year is the extension cord for the external lens that shipped with the X105.  A screw hole on the underside of the external lens attaches the unit to the adjustable strap - included with the SC-X210L. The screw hole also fits many standard tripod heads, but the tripod screws we tried were too long for a getting a tight fit.  While this annoyed us during testing, the fact that the external lens can’t be attached to a tripod without modification should not be a drawback to most users. Given a choice, why would you want to attach this little lens to a tripod when the main camcorder produces a much better picture, and attaches easily to a tripod? Finally, on top of the lens near the front as a tiny built-in pinhole microphone.

 

 

Auto/Manual Controls

Picture & Manual Control
Automatic Control (3.0)

The automatic controls on the SC-X210 are passable, and that’s about all the praise we can give. Given the audience for this camcorder, the auto controls should be much better. Chances are, many people using this will be in shooting situations where they barely have enough time to hit record, let alone fooling with focus and exposure.

The auto focus tends to breathe a little, which is something only the cheapest camcorders tend to do. (Breathing is a steady rhythm of the picture going in focus, then out of focus, then in focus, etc.) This only seemed to occur when the zoom was extended out between 8x and 10x. In closer zoom range, the focus was fine.

The X210's LCD cavity

The X210 has decent auto white balance for outdoors, adjusting very quickly from sunny to shady subjects. Under indoor conditions, however, the results were not so good. A quick look at the stills from Video Performance (see above) shows that neither the auto nor the manual white balance could find an accurate white balance. Bad white balance can skew the entire spectrum and ruin a scene.

The auto exposure is decent. Exposure shifts take about 2 seconds, and snap into place rather than a gradually transitioning. The camcorder does have a limited dynamic range though, meaning that if the auto exposure has adjusted for a brighter subject, most of the details will be lost in a shadowy area of the frame, and vice versa.

There are a few auto controls that you might find useful, even while dangling from the cliffs Kilimanjaro. The X210 offers three Program AE modes that are tailored for peak exposure settings in certain shooting environments. They include Sports, Spotlight, and Sand/Snow. Auto white balance settings include full auto, Daylight, Fluorescent, and Tungsten.

The X210 also offers a backlight compensation (BLC), which boosts the overall exposure to correct for subject overly backlit (i.e., standing in front of a window). This tends to blow out the background, but increases detail in the subject.

Finally, no modern camcorder would be complete without a few super-cheesy digital effects. Here, Samsung includes such classic hits as Art, Mosaic, Sepia, Negative, Mirror, and Black & White. These are hilarious effects that will have you friends laughing for up to two minutes. After that, you will never use them again.

Overall Manual Control (2.25)

The manual controls of the SC-X210 are extremely limited, which should come as no surprise to anyone. Who has time to adjust shutter speed when you’re burning down a hill at 25mph on your mountain bike? At least, that’s what I imagine was tossed around the Samsung boardroom some time last year. And who can argue? If you want manual control and you’re sold on Samsung, they offer plenty of MiniDV and DVD camcorders. This camcorder is clearly directed at a different market.

Most of the manual control operation is done through the joystick, a little nub of a thing that sits on the upper rear of the camcorder. While very, very small, the joystick does not suffer from some of the problems that the Sanyo VPC-HD1, which has a similarly sized controller. In the Sanyo’s case, the joystick had a hard time differentiating between your movements in the cardinal directions (up, down, left, and right) and movements inward (for the "enter" function). Not so with the Samsung. While it’s not the most comfortable controller in the camcorder world, they did manage to avoid that particular problem.

The menu layout of the X210 is surprisingly straightforward, which is more than we can say for most camcorders. There are two main menus, the Mode menu and the manual control menu pertaining to each mode. Pushing the Mode button calls up a spinning, circular menu to select from among the four operating modes – Movie, Photo, MP3, and Voice Recorder – along with file browser and system settings.

*An animated gif of the menu in video mode. *

Once you’re in a mode, pushing the Menu button calls up the manual control menu for that particular mode. In movie mode, you have options for image size, image quality, white balance, Program AE, digital effects, electronic image stabilization, focus methods, backlight compensation, digital zoom, record mode, and line in/out (to determine the path of the AV line). All this is navigated through the joystick with ease. Well done, Samsung.

The SC-X210 does offer manual focus and manual white balance, which are the only things we could really classify as a proper manual control. Focus is operated by the joystick and is probably only useful on rare occasions due to the poor handling. Manual white balance is not much better. The Video Performance section (above) shows that the colors would not properly adjust.

It would be remiss of us, of course, to neglect mentioning that every other camcorder in this price range has more manual controls. All camcorders tend to give you exposure control, however rudimentary, while this has none. This also has no shutter speed, which you would find on the all Panasonics, Canons, and JVCs. Sony does not offer shutter speed control on most of their consumer camcorders.

Zoom (4.0)

The zoom toggle is located on the upper rear of the camcorder, a small switch that slides up and down. From the outset, its seems to be a counter-intuitive design. You push up to zoom out, and down to zoom in. This strikes of illogicality. Pushing up seems to be a naturally forward motion. Not so to the designers of the X210.

That’s not our only issue with the zoom. The toggle only allows for one speed of zooming regardless of how much pressure you put on it. Most camcorders have between 2-4 speeds and a pressure-sensitive control. The Canon ZRs and Elura 100 offer three pre-set speeds that you can select from the menu. The X210’s control is not poorly placed (where else could they have put it?) but this is not a finely-tuned control by any means.

Zoom Power/Ratio (10.0)

The SC-X110L features a 10x optical zoom and 100x digital zoom. The digital zoom can be disabled in the menu, but when digital zoom is enabled, it cannot be capped at a lower max, i.e. 50x rather than 100x. Nonetheless, Samsung included a quality control feature in last year’s model, and has modified that feature for this year. With digital zoom enabled, a zoom would stop at 10x on the SC-X205L. Continuing the zoom into digital territory – 10x-100x – required another tap on the zoom toggle. This measure was intended to prevent an unintentional jump to digital zoom by requiring the user to actively choose to enter digital zoom.

This year, the SC-X210L simply pauses the zoom for a split second at the boundary between optical zoom and digital zoom, then continues. You no longer need to actively choose to enter digital zoom, but simply keep pressing on the toggle. Users who want to think as little as possible about shooting may appreciate not having to actively choose override of the optical/digital boundary (with a finger flick). Those who are serious about image quality – and that includes us at Camcorderinfo.com – will find this year’s continuous zoom (with a brief pause) to be a step in the wrong direction. Unless you really dig funky art-school-style pixilation, we recommend disabling digital zoom.

Focus (4.0)

The manual focus is available through the menu. Once you have selected "MF," exit the menu and push the joystick up or down to adjust the focus. There is absolutely no indication that you are in manual focus mode, despite the camcorder having no apprehensions about putting an "AF" icon in the screen when you are in auto focus mode. Also, there is no scale to let you know where in the focus range you are. While the LCD screen is of a higher resolution that you’ll find on most camcorders, 2.0 inches is not really enough to have a proper reading of the focus. Therefore, you’ll probably want to leave it in auto.

Exposure (Aperture) (0.0)

There is no exposure control on the SC-X210L, not an aperture control, and not a EV adjustment option either. You’ll find at least one of these, if not both, on every other camcorder that we talk about in this review. To not have any exposure control means that the camcorder must have excellent automatic responses, which it does not. The auto controls are fine, but the metering difficulties that this camcorder’s likely audience will experience (i.e., snow, beach, water, etc.) would make a manual exposure control seemingly obligatory. With such a small imager on the primary lens, the ability to boost exposure would be invaluable. Likewise, the fixed aperture of the external lens means it has a tendency to blow out. If there was any control they should have given the external lens (even as a digital correction function), it should have been exposure control.  

*Shutter Speed (0.0) *

There is no manual shutter speed on the SC-X210L. Most other camcorders in this price range have shutter speed control, except for Sonys.

White Balance (4.0)

The manual white balance on the X210 is found in the menu, under the label "custom." Making a white balance setting for the first time does not fill you with confidence in the camcorder’s ability. Normally, you would hold a white balance card or other flat, white object in front of the camcorder and press a button, telling the camcorder that this is what "white" should look like. You push the button and an icon blinks for a few seconds while it adjusts. When the blinking stops, you know the white balance has been set.

The X210 is less clear in its process. You push the button, and nothing happens. There is no blinking, no chiming, no anything to tell you if the adjustment has occurred or not. You may notice a change in the color tone of the white subject, but in most cases we did not. As seen in the Video Performance section (above) the custom white balance setting did not look great. The colors tended towards the green-grey. We were disappointed. But auto white balance made the picture overly red-orange. You’ll have to play around with it yourself to get the best image.

Gain (0.0)

There is no manual gain control. All Panasonics offer this control, and most JVCs offer a powerful auto gain control that can be turned on and off.

Other Manual Control (0.0)

There is no other manual control on the SC-X210L.

 

 

Still Features

Still Features* (2.5)*

The X210 has limited capacity as a still camera. It can record JPEG stills to the internal memory or to an SD/MMC card, but only at a 640 x 480 size, which equates to 0.3MP. Even the cheapest point and shoot camera easily shoots at over 12 times that resolution. This already calls the "hybrid" abilities of the camcorder into question.

The flash and SD / MMC card slot

Still mode makes available most of the same manual and automatic controls that are found in video mode: white balance, Program AE modes, digital effects, electronic image stabilization, focus methods, backlight compensation, and digital zoom. In addition, the menu has options for flash and continuous shot.

The flash is located directly below the lens and is too small to do much good over distances of a few feet. Its location is also problematic: the lens will have a tendency to cast shadows of your subject’s nose up onto their face, with the added bonus of creating a bright white rim along the edge of the nostrils.

A continuous shot feature (often called burst mode by other manufacturers) allows you to capture up to three stills in succession with a single push of the shutter button. The flash cannot be used with this feature.

Also, the external lens cannot be used to take stills.

Still Resolution* (1.7)*

The Samsung SC-X210’s stills were tested for their resolution by shooting a standard ISO 12233 resolution chart and running those stills through Imatest imaging software. In total, the 640 x 480 stills managed an approximate resolution of 169218.75.

The chart below shows how the Samsung stacked up against comparable camcorders.

Still Performance* (3.25)*

The SC-X210 shoots stills at one resolution, 640 x 480. Still performance was not much better than its video performance. The camcorder had trouble making out fine detail like text, and there was a general fuzziness to the image. The color balance was off, with most of the yellows and greens melting into each other in a flat, ugly yellow. There was also a fine scattering of blue noise throughout the picture.

Last year’s SC-X105 had similar issues, but the image was even fuzzier. Neither of these camcorder would in any way make a decent substitute for a dedicated still camera.

The JVC GZ-MG30, by contrast, had a much better 640 x 480 still, with (comparatively) decent color balance and sharper looking image. It too, however, suffered from some blue noise. The Sony DVD92 showed much stronger saturation, which in this case, looked better than the flat colors of the X210. Fine grain black noise was strong, though. The Sony HC42, on the other hand, had a remarkably similar color balance to the X210. The difference was sharpness; the HC42 was much, much sharper. There were blue noise patterns throughout, but not the rough, black grain of the DVD92. The Canon Elura 100 also had a similar color balance, with poorly reported yellows and greens. These were probably the sharpest stills of all, though, and it did not have any of the blue noise.

Overall, this is not a still camera replacement, despite what the marketers may claim, and should not be relied upon to take pictures of anything important.

Handling and Use

Ease of Use* (9.25)*

The Samsung SC-X210L is a preeminently easy camcorder to use, which should come as a relief to the skaters, snowboarders, surfers, and astronauts for whom it is designed. Switching between video, still, voice recorder, and MP3 player modes is all done with the "Mode" button. Navigating through the menus is equally simple: you push the button labeled "Menu" to find the menus. The joystick is small, but makes trolling through the menus fast and intuitive. Even beginners should be able to pick up this camcorder and be recording within seconds.

Handling* (8.25)*

Handling is often a problem with ultra compact camcorders, as the manufacturers are forced to get overly creative with finding places to stick all the features. This tradeoff is inevitable when you swap size for features – and it’s one that buyers of ultra compacts should expect. The SC-X110L is a stripped down product, with only a few features in each mode; the handling is correspondingly simple, if not always intuitive.

The main navigation tool on the SC-X110L is the joystick, aided by the Menu and Mode buttons. Pushing down on the Mode button brings up the mode menu. Once in a menu, pressing up and down on the joystick jogs vertically through menu lists, pressing left and right jogs horizontally, and pressing in on the joystick selects menu items. The Record button and "Up" on the Zoom Toggle also select menu items, a function duplication that is confusing and seems unnecessary. Overall, the menus are easy to navigate, but require some practice to use efficiently.

When it comes to shooting with the SC-X210L, another tradeoff appears: people with hands larger than a four-year-olds will have trouble. Operating the interface with my medium-sized male hand is difficult. The zoom and record buttons required me to contort my hand into a position that quickly became uncomfortable. Yet operating an iPod, a cell phone, a PDA, or any other device with proportions similar to the SC-X210L’s is never easy. People who are concerned about shooting comfort might take the time to build some kind of modified grip for this camcorder.

The external lens has even bigger handling quirks. It’s small, it seems to be durable (and is probably more so than the main camcorder) and you can do things with it that few other consumer products on the market allow. Yet, in another trade-off, there is no picture control over video produced by the external lens. Its fixed aperture and lack of manual controls on the barrel mean that what you see is what you get. In fact, the few video options that are available when using the main camcorder are simply disabled when the external lens is active. Video from the external lens is also fish-eyed due to the fixed focal length.

Additionally, the external lens is intended for use as a strap-on camera, and controlling the horizontal alignment (" Which way is up," in layman’s terms) can be difficult. Than again, when the goal is capturing POV footage during an SBX competition, a base jump, or just a leisurely speed climb, "up" might not be the most important factor. If it is important to you, the bundled video editing program (Ulead VideoStudio 9SE) enables rotation of the video image during post. Also, the lens can now be rotated 180 degrees, independent of the rest of the body. Last year’s external lens required turning the entire body to adjust horizontal alignment.

Portability* (9.75)*

The SC-X210L is a highly portable camcorder: about the size of a first-generation iPod. The main camcorder easily slips into a pocket or purse, and users will no doubt make use of this. While no electronic device does well when mingled with keys and gum in the grinding mill of a Levis pocket, the rubber exterior and rounded shape of this camcorder should make it more durable than other compacts. SC-X210L also includes several carrying accessories: a strap that can be attached to the bottom rear of the main camcorder and a sturdy carrying pouch with a belt loop that snugly holds the camcorder, external lens, and accessories. The carabiner included in last year’s SC-X105 has been dropped.

The external lens is also extremely portable, though it cannot be disconnected from its cable. This makes it slightly less portable than the main camcorder body, since fitting it into a pocket requires coiling the unruly cable. The rubber coating of the external camera only is rated as weatherproof: "…protected against water sprayed from a vertical position above the center of Sports Camcorder top (power LED facing up) at 15 degree angles." There are numerous ways to wear this lens using the included mount and strap, and MacGyver-types will have fun creating their own mounting systems.

LCD/Viewfinder* (5.25)*

As an ultra-compact, the SC-X210L has no viewfinder, so you'll have to rely on the small LCD screen to frame your shots. On the plus side, while the LCD screen on the SC-X210L is a mere 2', Samsung packs a whopping 230K pixels into that space: 123K would be a more typical pixel count in this price range. You'll be hard-pressed to see a difference, given the small size of the screen, but this is one of the few instances of over-engineering you'll find on the SC-X210L. Despite the high pixel count, the screen solarizes when tilted – and it’s likely that people who truly use this as a sports camcorder will tilt the LCD more often than during conventional shooting. 

There are some marginally useful LCD adjustments: brightness and color. Brightness is the more useful of the two and is represented as a seemingly arbitrary percentage value. The system default is 30%, which presents a balanced image in moderate light. At 0%, the LCD is dim but legible, and above 80% it is flat, blown out, and nearly white. As with all LCDs, it's not easy to see the video image in bright sunlight, but the brightness adjustment provides some compensation, albeit at a cost to contrast.

Battery Life* (8.1)*

The SC-X210L ships with the SB-P120A battery, a custom battery especially for the sports cam series that has the same weather resistant rubber coating as the rest of the camera. It is tall and slender, and fits neatly into the right side of the body. The manual lists the battery as having a continuous recording time of 1 hour and 20 minutes with the backlight on and a charging time of close to two hours. Samsung also offers a longer life version of the battery, the SB-P190A, with a reported 2 hours and thirty minutes of recording time.

Never one to take a manual at face value, we tested the battery ourselves for continuous shooting. We left the LCD open and the backlight and image stabilization on. When the memory was full, we plugged in the DC power, erased the last clip, then continued. In total, the battery lasted 81 minutes and 21 seconds (1 hour, 21 minutes, and 11 seconds.)

 

Audio/Playback/Connectivity

Audio* (4.0)*

Audio on the SC-X210L is recorded through the built-in mic on the back of the LCD screen. As noted in the Tour section, this is an odd mic placement, because it’s likely that, in many shooting situations, the LCD will not be pointed towards the subject. There is a second microphone located on the external lens, indicated only by a pinhole on the underside of the barrel. There is no microphone input jack.

Mic performance is very poor. Even when recording voice-over from a foot away, both mics yield sound that is not much better then telephone quality – meaning that even under the best of circumstances, you should expect significant distortion. In terms of comparison between the two, the on-board mic seems to capture a brighter sound with slightly better sensitivity while the pinhole mic on the external lens is a bit warmer, more like a lapel mic. In addition, you will need to be especially vigilant to avoid scraping or breathing too heavily on either mic, given the extremely compact size of this camcorder and the even smaller size of the external lens and mic. Also remember the external lens mic location, because it is easily muted by a stray finger. Samsung also ships the SC-X210L with a pair of high quality headphones of a vaguely iPod-ish design.

VCR Mode* (8.0)*

Playing back video or stills on the SC-X210L is simple but not entirely intuitive, and takes a little getting used to. While in video mode, pushing in on the joystick plays back the last clip shot. Pushing left brings you to the previous clip, while pushing right plays the next clip. Once you arrive at a clip, pushing in on the joystick plays the selected clip. Now here’s where things get interesting: Pushing up or down on the joystick governs playback volume through the miniscule left side speaker – a nice use of the interface in my opinion. Finally, you can enter a thumbnail view of video clips by pressing the top of the zoom toggle button once. This displays up to 6 clips per page, and playing a highlighted clip is as simple as pressing in on the joystick. In addition, you can easily delete clips in thumbnail view by hitting the delete button and selecting one, several or all clips. Be careful with this delete feature! Playing back stills follows exactly the same set of steps, but is entered from Photo Mode.

Thumbnails in the VCR mode.

Our congratulations to Samsung for making some improvements over the SC-X105L with the addition of the joystick, but this playback is still not a simple process. For the first couple times through, you would do well to have the manual handy. Otherwise, you’ll be pulling your hair out as you puzzle over how to exit the VCR mode. One more good note, however: the internal computer remains exceptionally fast at creating the thumbnails, and moving through video playback functions is faster than in many more expensive solid state camcorders, such as the JVC GZ-MG37.

Ports* (6.0)*

Considering its size, the X210 has a decent number of ports—and, thankfully, Samsung has moved them all onto the camcorder body. Last year, the sports cam series used a cradle for several of the connections. Nobody really wanted to lug a large, angular cradle around, so this was a huge boon to portability. This year, Samsung also switched allegiances with its still media and moved from MemoryStick to SD and MMC cards. This is a decision which benefits consumers, as SD cards are cheaper and more widely available than any other format.

*The ports of the X210. Bottom picture shows how the external lens connects. *

On the front of the camcorder, a thin, plastic door opens to reveal the card slot and hi-speed mini-USB 2.0 port. On the right side is the battery. On the rear are the DC power port, AV multimedia jack, (a proprietary fit that extends to RCA plugs with the included cable), and headphone jack. When the external lens is connected, it uses both the AV and headphone jack, the latter providing the phantom power for the now battery-less lens.

The ports are not in the best places if you need to plug anything in and still shoot, as there is little enough room for your hands already. But, if you’re only going to set the camera down, the port placement is fine. How can you complain when the body is this small and they still manage to avoid a cradle?

 

 

Other Features

Widescreen/16:9 Mode* (0.0)*

The SC-X210L does not offer a widescreen mode. All other camcorders in its class have this feature, and most of them also offer a widescreen LCD.

Scan Rates/24p* (1.0)*

The SC-X210 shoots in three scan rates, 720i (interlaced fields), 720p (progressive frames), and 352p. Don’t let the numbers fool you. While 720p may look like a calling card for high definition, this camcorder is a far cry from that. The progressive shooting is optimized specifically for PC playback, and they give you two resolution options (720 x 480 and 352 x 240) right in the camcorder. Interlace video is optimized for TV playback and is a fixed resolution (720 x 480). The quality of the 720i and 720p is essentially the same. You just need to know ahead of time where most of the playback will be taking place. Either mode will play on either medium, however.

Other Features* (6.0)*
External Lens - Clearly the biggest part of the 'cool factor' with the X210, the external lens is certainly fun to play with. Full a full tour of the lens, along with photos, see the tour section way up at the top of this review. In summary, the fun does not last, and the coolness wears off faster than a fake tan in a jacuzzi.  The lens has a bad tendency towards fish-eye barrel distortion and blowing out in bright light. While it may have potability functions that no other camcorder can match, the quality is extremely sub-par, matching that of the disposable CVS camcorder that some of you may have been unfortunate enough to try.

MP3 Player – This camcorder, like so many gadgets, has aspirations at being an electronic Swiss Army knife. In addition to video and still capture, it also functions as an MP3 player and a voice memo recorder. It’s 1GB internal memory can hold up to 2000 MP3 files, playing them back through the headphone with included headphones. Options for the MP3 player include shuffle and repeat functions and four pre-set equalizer settings.

Voice Recorder – "Oh, man! I had the best idea for a reality show last night, but now I can’t remember what it was." No owner of the SC-X210 will ever suffer this tragedy again with the voice recorder, which captures audio through its built-in microphone and saves it as a .wav file.

Electronic Image Stabilization – To prevent shaky footage caused by hand tremors, the camcorder employs an electronic image stabilization. This process takes a toll on video quality, and optical image stabilization is the generally preferred method.

 

 

Comparisons/Conclusion

Comparison
Samsung SC-X105L
Last year, we placed the SC-X105L in the "toy cam" category, meaning simply that this is more a gadget than a serious tool for gathering video – and the SC-X210L is still a toy, but definitely a better and evolving toy. The SC-X210L will again score very poorly in terms of video and still picture quality – but video quality is one of the last reasons to buy this camcorder. In the consumer marketplace, both models feature a unique combination of ultra-compact size, some weather resistance, durable rubber exterior, and of course – the external lens. So what has improved? Actually quite a bit: The hard drive size has doubled from 512 MB to 1 GB; The external cam is now powered from the main body, and has added an external Power on/off/Record interface; menu navigation is easier via the new joystick; the overall design is slimmer and better integrated; the LCD pixel count has increased to 230K from 210K (though that’s not a difference that’s going to be discernable to many users); importantly, the price has dropped from $799 to $699;

On the downside, the SC-X210L has lost the extension cable for the external cam (perhaps because there is now a wireless model, the SC-X210W) and (sorrows!) lost the carabiner. But there is still no consumer camcorder on the market that lets you do what this one does off the shelf: record video with an included external cam that you can mount to just about any part of your body.

JVC GZ-MG30**
When you are reviewing a one-of-a-kind camcorder like the Samsung SC-X210L, its not easy to decide what to compare it to, so we’ve chosen camcorders in a similar price range and sharing some of the same features. In the case of JVC’s GZ-MG30 of the Everio G-series, the commonality is that they both record to solid state non-removable hard disks. The capacity of the MG30 blows the Samsung out of the water at 21GB vs. 1GB capacity. Performance-wise, while the MG30 performs very poorly, it still produces video that is sharper and brighter than the SC-X210L. Where does the SC-X210L shine in this comparison? It’s smaller, cheaper by about $200, more durable, easier to use, and of course, extreme sport-ready. JVC also has entry level G-series Everio this year, the GZ-MG21, which have not yet reviewed. On the whole, we favor the JVC over the Samsung.

Sony DCR-DVD92
Once again, comparisons are difficult – but the Sony DVD92 does share some of the convenience and ease-of-use that are hallmarks of the SC-X210L. This comes in part from the fact that the DVD92 records to the familiar DVD format, and benefits from Sony’s commitment to simplicity in its consumer products. That said, the Sony purports to be a real consumer camcorder rather than a niche product for skateboarders like the SC-X210L – though its video performance was nearly as bad. These are also two products that many will find cool simply based on how they look – but in my opinion the ultra-compact size and black rubber exterior are much hipper than the bland silver body of the DVD92. And DVDs can skip when they’re shaken around. While you could certainly mount the Sony on a helmet with a custom rig, if that’s your goal, go with the Samsung. For pure performance, Sony has the slight edge.

Sony DCR-HC42**
While it differs in many fundamental ways from the SC-X210L, the Sony DCR-HC42 could offer some competition to the Samsung on a few counts. As a MiniDV camcorder, it does not have the skipping liabilities of a DVD camcorder, so it should function solidly in sports-type situations. It’s not as small as the SC-X210L but is still very compact. And while its video quality is poor compared to other DV camcorders in its price range, the Sony still far out performs the SC-X210L – and it costs $200 less. However as in any comparison, the Sony lacks the multifunctionality of the Samsung, the external lens, and that cool black rubber exterior. It’s also a much poorer performer in the DV realm than our final entry – the Canon Elura 100. Once again, though, on performance alone, the Sony beats the Samsung.

Canon Elura 100**
This camera offers perhaps the most compelling competition to the SC-X210L. It shares all the features that make the Sony worth discussion – notably small size, and the shock-proof MiniDV format – but it also boasts excellent video performance for the price – you could almost buy two Elura 100’s for the price of one SC-X210L ($399 vs. $699). An intrepid DIY-type could have some serious fun with a couple of Elura 100’s – think custom helmet mounts – opening up the potential to shoot decent video from two POVs. While the Elura 100 opens up some interesting possibilities for sports use, its still not as small, cool looking, or easy to use as the SC-X210L. And while MiniDV tapes are relatively cheap, the Samsung is tape-less. For better and worse, and until someone comes up with some real competition, the SC-X210L remains in a quirky class of its own. For most consumers, however, the winner is Canon.

Who It’s For
Point-and-Shooters *(5.0)*

This is probably the target market for the SC-X210L, though it’s a particular breed of point-and-shooter, the sports enthusiast, that will be best served. Simple interface, easy menu navigation, and passable automatic controls make this an appealing option.

Budget Consumers* (4.0)*

There are much better camcorders are lower prices, if performance is what you’re after. The Canon Elura 100, in particular, is a great camcorder at a great price. The X210’s price is drive up for reasons other than performance.

Still Photo / Video Camera Hybrid* (1.0)*

At 640 x 480 stills, this is not anywhere near a replacement for a still camera. For further proof, read the Still Performance section above.

Gadget Freaks* (6.0)*

The X210 certainly has some uses that most camcorders do not. The weather resistant housing is a big plus, and the external lens offers some very cool possibilities. Gadget freaks who passed on last year’s model because of price or a clunky cradle will be happy to see some changes.

Manual Control Freaks* (1.0)*

There are few manual controls to be found on the X210; focus and white balance are about it. If you want something with more control, look towards almost any other camcorder. Panasonic and JVC are particularly good.

Pros/ Serious Hobbyists* (1.0)*

Most of you in this category will not be interested in the X210 as anything but a gimmick. Image quality is poor, and the highly compressed video does not have many professional applications.

Conclusion

The Samsung SC-X210L can make a compelling argument for itself, if you don't care about quality. It has a market, that’s for sure. They’ve targeted the sports crowd and delivered a camcorder that has a few decent features. The extremely compact, weatherproof body is easily imaged hanging off the side of a mountain climber next to a chalk bag. Also, the 15 year old who wants to shoot his friends skating, then put the video up on Myspace will probably lean more towards this than a MiniDV camcorder, even though MiniDV will deliver about 3x the quality.

The biggest liability is image quality. This is meant a convenience tool, and the video suffers because of it. We’re looking at a mediocre imager and the high MPEG4 AVI compression as the likely culprits. Every other camcorder in its class significantly outperformed it. Every other camcorder also offered more manual controls, automatic controls, and 16:9 shooting options. Those are some dire trade-offs for a camcorder with little going for it besides portability and weather resistance. The biggest strike against it may be the abysmal performance of its marketing hook, the external lens. This won't just give you run-of-the-mill bad video; you'll have trouble making out basic shapes under some lighting conditions.

So buyers, be aware. There are far better options out there if you’re just looking for a little camcorder. The SC-X210L has a short list of very specific advantages over other camcorders. Know that these are the most important factors to you going in, and there's a slim chance you might still like it. As we stated earlier, you could buy two cheap MiniDV camcorders and some glue at this price, and rig up something your skater friends have never seen before.

 

 

Specs/Ratings

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