Yeah I agree- miniDV compression was the best of the consumer formats with HDV second and now with these implementations of AVCHD and various .264 codecs- quality is worsening each time out~ what a terrible direction for home videographers!

first review (that I've seen at least) up here:

http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/06/17/samsung-sc-hmx20c-hd-camcorder-review/

Not incredibly detailed but overall positive review with some sample clips


Well, I downloaded all the video clips from the review and SURPRISE, they all play without any problems. Now I'm beginning to think that maybe the files I recorded had dropped frame(s) or some sort of glitch in them.

I may need to go back to Circuit City and try it again with a better memory card...


Bob Diaz

Yeah I agree- miniDV compression was the best of the consumer formats with HDV second and now with these implementations of AVCHD and various .264 codecs- quality is worsening each time out~ what a terrible direction for home videographers!

Maybe in the second tier brands... the Sony SR11 is a pretty clean implementation of AVCHD, better than HDV at a similar price point, if a little bit of effort to figure out the workflow.

Does anyone know how this Samsung VP-HMX20C compares to the Casio Exilim Pro EX-F1?

I can pick up the Samsung for about £175 now, but the Casio will cost me £450. I would only be using it for slo-motion (high FPS) video work.

Incidentally, I'm not worried about the 10-second restriction that the Samsung has, I will get what I need within that time. The most important factor is quality of the footage.

I have the Samsung VP-HMX20C. The video at 300 FPS isn't too bad, but there are times I notice some artifacts in the video. Here are 2 videos I posted on YouTube that show the results:

YouTube - Slow Motion Test (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEkAyLdP0rI)

YouTube - Egg shot with a 22 at 300 FPS (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aA0lP5V4X8c)

A copy of one of the videos is on Vimeo:

http://vimeo.com/2731250


Bob Diaz

Hi Bob,

Thanks for posting those, I went and had a look.

It doesn't look HD.. Are you able to edit in full 1080? Would you get the 60fps at 1080 and is it editable with programs like Adobe Premiere CS4?

One factor that is putting me off the Casio is the inability to edit the footage in Premiere CS4. I downloaded a clip from their site, http://www.exilim.com/intl/ex_f1/images/gallery/full_hd_mov/CIMG0218.ZIP which is 28MB. All I get in Premiere is a green screen.

This is a serious put-off for the Casio. I must be able to edit it along with other h.264 footage. It appears to use its own codec hybrid. Not good at all. Why can't these camera manufacturers stick to the industry standard? Found this thread useful: Casio EX-F1 - FullHD (h.264) - VideoHelp.com (http://www.videohelp.com/forum/archive/casio-ex-f1-fullhd-h-264-t366949.html)

Thanks again Bob.

All the 300 FPS Slow motion footage is 448 x336. I'm uploading some 1080/30p footage so you can see the HD output of the camera.

Now many HD video cameras shoot 1080/60i and 108030p, but you are not going to see a camera shoot 1080/60p. TVs may offer that, but the video cameras don't offer that.

I use FCE (Final Cut Express), so I like to down convert the 1080/30p footage into 720/30p and edit in that resolution. FCE will edit the 1080/30p footage as 1080/60i, but I just like the 720/30p mode more.

I have never used Premiere CS4.


The link for the video is:

Winter On the farm in Idaho, Test shot on Vimeo

The tags I used for the video are: Idaho, winter, ice, snow, Samsung, HMC20c, camera, 1080p, test, video, 30p, farm, Bob, Diaz, BobDiaz

If you want to go direct to Vimeo and search for it. If you have an account with Vimeo and log into it, you can download the source file.


Bob Diaz

Now many HD video cameras shoot 1080/60i and 108030p, but you are not going to see a camera shoot 1080/60p. TVs may offer that, but the video cameras don't offer that.

The Sanyo VPC-FH1 and VPC-HD2000 both shoot 1080/60p video.

I don't know of any other cameras in the sub-$1000 category other than the five stated below that are capable of slow motion functionality.

Made a little cribsheet to compare them by, might be useful to others.

In the end after much researching I bought the Casio EX-F1. Got a good deal at £435 including shipping.