Samsung SMX-C20 Ultra Compact "Touch of Color" Camcorder with 10x Optical Zoom (Purple) (Discontinued by Manufacturer)

I previously owned a HDD based Sony Handycam. The camera died (out of warranty) so I looked for another one. I thought I would go for a lower price this time around as I would mainly use to shoot occasional videos of my daughters. It was about half the price of a Sony or Canon. Should have stayed with Sony because I got burned. I was expecting a lower quality product, but there are a lot of things working against this device here. The biggest problem with this camera is that videos don't end up encoded in the correct 16:9 widescreen ratio. This seems to be a problem with other lower-end Samsung cameras (the MX-20 has the biggest complaints about it online) and if I had known this in advance I would have stayed away. The camera records video in 720x480. It's a widescreen and it looks good on the camera. As soon as you plug it into your TV or play the file on the computer, you will notice the black bars on the side. The video is actually in 3:2 aspect ratio!!! is a bug in Samsung's encoding.Search for the Samsung widescreen camcorder problem and you will find it.I found this advertisement unacceptable and false (Samsung claims widescreen and a representative told me personally that 'it would "fill the screen and have no black bars on a widescreen TV".) If that wasn't reason enough to re nvoyer, there is real camera quality. The buttons are very cheap. Everything has a flimsy/plastic feel. The LCD doesn't even rotate smoothly. You really have to press the record button ( and the power button) for it to work and you feel like you are going to break it. I knew this product was low end but I still expected some semblance of quality from from Samsung (I love their TVs and appliances). The camera lens also doesn't have a cover. Video quality is low to decent. Very basic settings and function. What did I like? Well the color of the camera itself is nice and I like the angle/ergonomics concept of its design. The timelapse option is a nice touch but as I refer it after a few days, I didn't even have the opportunity to try it. I research a lot before buying and unfortunately this camera is very new and few people talk about it. Even if you don't mind the wide screen problem, I still recommend you to look at another brand (Sony , Canon) which offers better build quality. I'm going back to Sony after returning this. Hope this helps others when making a camcorder purchase decision.