The latest in their line of flash-based camcorders for extreme sports fans, the Samsung SC-X300L adds little to last year’s sports cam model besides expanded memory. CamcorderInfo has a first look review of the new SC-X300L and its little brother, the SC-X300.
A few of the basic features are a 680K, 1/6″ CCD, 10x optical zoom, and a 2″ LCD. Memory on the SC-X300L has been upped to 2GB, while the SC-X300 will come with 1GB of built-in memory. The Samsung SC-X300L will also ship with a wired helmet cam featuring a 320K, 1/4″ CMOS sensor. The SC-X300 comes with only the body.
In my experience Samsung’s sports cams have offered very unsatisfying footage when it comes to quality, and CCInfo seems to think the trend may continue with their new products. Thankfully, introductory prices have dropped, with the Samsung SC-X300L selling for around $450, and the SC-X300 for around $350.
The Samsung SC-X300 can be summarized this way:
- Mediocre video quality
- Terrible low-light performance
- Crippled DivX video format requires custom codec software
- No still image ability
- Zoom motor is audible in the recording
- Video input feature routinely crashes the camera
The purchase of this device has been my single biggest regret so far this year.