What’s New in the SC-HMX20C?

Compared to its predecessor, the SC-HMX10A, the SC-HMX20C moves up to a full 1080p, which seems to have no affect on it’s recording time compared to 1080i on this unit. Both resolutions give you approximately 71 minutes of maximum quality HD on the 8GB of internal memory vs the 4GB of internal memory on the SC-HMX10A. The SC-HMX20C also ads in a slow motion capture feature that allows you to take 10 second clips at 60 fps for those more dramatic slow motion moments. When you play back a 10 second clip, it actually stretches itself back out to 50 seconds. The results look very similar to some cameras that record 300 fps clips.
I was curious to see if they improved the somewhat limited camera functionality. Although you still can’t push the button to immediately take a picture (it just beeps at you saying no now), they did implement something called “Dual Recording” which essentially allows you to take a still capture while recording in any of the video recording modes. Of course, this means you are limited to the resolution that you are recording and you can’t just hit the photo button without recording. Still limited, but at least they’re trying to improve it. Samsung also adds a real flash to the camera and a Megapixel upgrade from 1.61 to 6.4 (4.0 effective) gives the camera improved resolution for stills.