Test the Samsung VP-MX20
Verdict
Key specs
Review Price: £174.80
Samsung has significantly rebranded its camcorder lineup over the past year, culminating in the excellent
VP-HMX20
Stylistically, the VP-MX20 has a lot in common with its big brother. But where the HMX20 is a punchy HD model, the MX20 is a much more budget-oriented affair. Sporting the now almost obligatory YouTube sticker on the side and priced under £200, this is a camcorder for the masses, rather than a high-end shooter for the discerning videographer.
After the HMX20, the MX20 specification seems pedestrian. Instead of a large, high-resolution CMOS sensor, a small 1/6-inch CCD sensor with 800,000 pixels plays the central role. The small sensor means the MX20 can offer zoom Massive 34x optics, but that doesn't bode well for image quality. On the plus side, Samsung boasts optics from Schneider Kreuznach, a company with nearly a century of experience in the lens business. .The lens is protected by a shutter mechanism, but it does not open automatically. Instead, a slider on the side of the lens operates it manually.
Most big-name standard-definition camcorders use the MPEG-2 format for recording, but the MX20 relies instead on MPEG-4 H.264 AVC, packaged as MP4 files, like the HMX20. Four quality modes are available. TV Super Fine, TV Fine and TV Normal use 720 x 576 resolution, while Web & Mobile operates at 640 x 480, which will be more directly compatible with YouTube. Data rates vary further from 7 Mbps in the upper TV mode to around 4.5 Mbps for the lowest mode. Web & Mobile mode operates at 3.5 Mbps. All four options operate at 25 frames per second, with 50 interlaced fields. The MX20 records on SD or SDHC, a 4 GB card is therefore sufficient for 1h30 of recording in Super Fine TV mode, and nearly 4 hours in Web & Mobile.
The MX20 is primarily controlled by a dial and select button on the edge of the LCD screen, with a menu button giving access to more settings. C.Nite low light. The jog dial is a little fiddly, but it gives quick access to some useful functions by pressing the center button. Manual exposure is available, with 30 steps. The shutter can be set from 1/50th to 1/10,000th regardless of exposure. The dial is also used for manual focus and, oddly enough, you can disable sound recording. Without pressing the center button, the dial offers a another way to control the zoom.
Press the menu button to call up more manual options, as well as other ways to access the settings already mentioned. Aside from manual or autofocus, the MX20 also has Samsung's version of the face detection in this section, although it's not entirely clear what this does when enabled, if any. White balance presets include Daylight and Cloudy for natural light, or Fluorescent and Tungsten for artificial lighting. Backlight compensation mode gets buried here, making it a bit too inaccessible. The menu also houses iSCENE preset modes, which include Sports, Portrait, Spotlight, Beach and Snow, as well as a few quirkier options including High Speed, Food, and Waterfall.
A potentially fun option is interval recording, which creates time-lapse effects by capturing a single frame after a fixed period. You can set how often each frame is captured and how long you want to record. Intervals can range from 1 to 30 seconds, and the recording time from 24 to 72 hours, or "infinite", which effectively means until the memory card is full. So if you feel like recording clouds or grass grow, it could be the camcorder to do it. Although the MX20 has a three-hour battery life, you'd better activate the time lapse function with the AC adapter plugged in. There is a readout in minutes of how much battery is left, which is very useful.
It's also a comfortable camcorder to use. Although the form factor is essentially the same as the HMX20, the MX20 is lighter and the handle pivots, so it's easy to use with one or two hands. However, despite the presence of manual controls, there are few other concessions to the serious videographer. No accessory shoe is integrated to connect third-party peripherals, no microphone input and no headphone jack to monitor audio levels.
With its 1/6in foot sensor, the MX20 was never going to deliver even vaguely close quality to the HMX20. are sharper than similarly specified models from competitors, such as
JVC Everio GZ-MG330
.But compression artifacts are also more noticeable and colors darker.The results will be more than good enough for YouTube though.
In moderate artificial lighting the quality is merely average for a camcorder of this class. Images are quite dark, filled with coarse grain and compression artifacts. whites are mostly decent, which is a refreshing change from most budget camcorders. C.Nite's low light modes also boost brightness, but at the expense of grain. The more aggressive of the two produces of bubbling noise, and both introduce an unsightly posterizing effect. Autofocus is also very uncertain in low light. Audio isn't bright either. This is recorded at 24kHz, rather than at 32 kHz or 48 kHz used by most camcorders.
CyberLink MediaShow comes on CD to upload your videos to YouTube, which worked well. But we also tried MP4 files in Adobe Premiere Elements 7, Corel VideoStudio Pro X2, Pinnacle Studio 12 Plus, and CyberLink PowerDirector 7. None of between them had no problem importing or editing the files. If you just want to watch footage on a TV, there's a built-in mini AV jack with a breakout cable for composite video and stereo RCA audio.
"'Verdict"'
The Samsung VP-MX20 isn't a huge reveal like the
VP-HMX20
.Targeting the mainstream video-sharing audience, its specs raise fewer eyebrows and its video performance is at the lower end of the market.Also note that the MX20 doesn't have a photo mode at all, so it can't replace a digital camera. But then there's the price. With most competitors costing over £200, this camcorder represents excellent value for money, even if it doesn't have the image quality or features required to video enthusiasts.
Trust Score
Note in detail
Image quality
6
Features
6
Value
ten