I actually bought this camera from another store that had a huge sale and saved a ton of money even with a 2 year warranty. I'm actually a college student majoring in visual communications. This camera easily transfers data from the camcorder or just using the SDHC cards directly inserted to any PC. The editing software is basic and not thrilling by any means. If your an average individual looking to slice and dice footage this camcorder is perfect for you. The files are saved as compressed .MP4s. If your looking for another level of editing such as myself using Premiere Pro or Final Cut, you must convert the files. Easiest way to achieve this is taking the .MP4s and upload them into Quick Time Pro 7 (can be downloaded for Macs or PCs). From Quick Time you have to save the files as .MOVs. If you do not do this loading the files in an editing program you will only be able to get the audio. As well Quick Time is 30 bucks and no need for expensive converting programs out there. As far as the audio is concerned it is excellent as the picture is. Wind can give you some trouble even with the wind screen, but what condensed internal mic doesn't? Comes with a nice touch screen and limited push buttons. Menu use is very easy and self explanatory. Fast hand movements do get a bit choppy if your recording in HD from the refresh rate. 8GB SDHC cards will give you approximately 61 minutes of record time on the highest settings. Charge time is very fast and on a full charge you will get about 75 minutes of straight recording time. You can also get some great Transcend SDHC cards for very cheap as well there is a very nice package deal for extra batteries and clothes. Like in the other reviews the only difference between this camcorder and the others in the HMX product line is the size of internal memory. So it's up to you if its worth getting a higher series that only carries more internal memory. That is about all I can think of discussing this camcorder. This is a great commercial camcorder and totally worth the 500+ you will be dishing out.

I picked this camera up at Fry's, but a model with built-in SSD, to shoot my sister's wedding last minute.
My favorite things, after trying a fistful of HD camcorders:
- Fantastic image. Quality of video rivals Canon.
- Hands down the BEST anti-shake feature I've seen in this price range. Canon isn't even remotely close.
- Easy to use

The bad:
- Small internal battery, one size only. OK lifespan, but I prefer something external like Canon's, you can buy a bigger size and clip it on still.
- It doesn't handle low light. Very few of these do well in indoors or low light, though. My sister's wedding was at sunset, once the sun was down, the video was bad. The best low-light performance I've seen was in a Sanyo, but the video quality was terrible in comparison.
- While the screen menu is easy to use (touchscreen a nice bonus), some features, like activating a backlit mode, you don't want to have to dig through a menu to get to.
- Focus speed was slower than I like, but perhaps that was due to the low light.
- Samsung advertised that this could do 1080 60i or 30p, that is a flat out lie. There is no 30p feature on this machine, at least not at 1080.

If you need something easy, handy, that produces great images, and you don't need all the features a Canon can offer, this is it!

I have been using the Samsung HMX H100 for about a month now, and it performs quite well. Very easy to use with touch screen menus and controls that are very intuitive. It has a number of manual controls, but using it as a point and shoot camcorder yields excellent results. Optical stabilization works well, 10X zoom is clear, as is the macro mode. One big surprise to me was how detailed the time lapse video can be-really amazing! Auto focus is a bit slow at times, but so far has not been an issue when recording video - even in a sailplane flying at 80 knots, where the focus can change often.

I am very pleased at the quality of the video this small camcorder can produce. I have been using Cyberlink PowerDirector Ultra video editing program to load, edit, and record to DVD using an old DVD burner I have had in my computer for about 5 years. It also allows auto uploads to You Tube. With the Cyberlink software there is no need to convert the native files the H100 produces. I have tried most if not all of the popular editing programs, and only Corel Video Studio Pro X2 required a conversion to load. Intelli-Studio, a "lite" type editing program, that comes with the H100, easily converted the H.264 files to a usable format.

If you are not a videophile needing a top of the line HD Camcorder for professional use, the Samsung HMX H100 will probably suit your needs. I am very pleased with the quality of the videos this small camcorder can produce.

First, I want to put a few things clear before making this review.
In consumer digital camera world we have to understand the two different technologies used in picking the video image. They are CCD and CMOS. They stand for Charge Coupled Device and Complimentary Metal Oxide Semiconductor respectively. How they work is not relevant but the pros and cons of each one is.
CCDs are being used in digital cameras for a long time. They are very sensitive to light but they are difficult to manufacture and therefore expensive. In the other hand we have CMOS, they are cheap to manufacture but they are less sensitive to light and have higher noise figures than CCDs.

Now that we have a clear understanding of CCDs vs CMOS, I can talk about the Samsung HMX-H100.

I like to call it "in a class by itself" because in the $449 price range there is no other camera with such features, quality in construction and performance. It have a very good 10x optical zoom with optical image stabilization , nice color rendering, Good picture definition, and acceptable battery life. Of course you could have slight improvement in low light performance in a CMOS Canon or Sony but you have to spend another $300 to $400 to get it. Or if you want the top in low light picture quality, be ready to say good bye to over $2000 out of your wallet for a 3CCDs Canon, Sony or JVC Pro Grade camcorder

Battery life is good for some 55 to 65 minutes of full HD 1080i recording. So an extra battery is a must.


With memory prices going down by the week, it is not a problem to get a good deal on a couple of 16gb SDHC Class 4 cards. One 16gb SDHC is good for over two hours of recording in full 1080i super fine HD.

Another interesting thing about it, is that it carries a copy Samsung Intelli-Studio editing software inside it. Just connect the camcorder via USB to any Windows PC and it ask for software installation. No more software CDs getting lost in your desk, camera bag or laptop case. Its already inside the camcorder!

In conclusion. There are lot of good to excellent consumer camcorders out there. But in the $449 price range IMHO there is only one... the Samsung HMX-H100

Absolutely love this camera, its small compact, easy to carry around. Quality is off the charts crisp. Recharge time is quick, nice recording time. Only negative is the low light shooting, this camera sucks in low light. I totally recommend this for the price.

This thing is small, compact and Amazing, Keep in mind you can get the more expensive one with the higher models but its the same thing just without the built in memory. But this is a better bet, because you can get 16 and 32 gig memory cards cheeper anyway and there removable. This camera has no memory internally like the more expensive ones but your going to purchase memory cards anyway. So purchase this and save!

I am very pleased with this camera.
It takes great HD videos and we enjoy being able to pop out the SD flash card and transfer videos to the laptop.

It's very light and the touch screen is great.
If you are looking for a great HD camcorder this one is a great choice.

Had this camera for 4 days now. Over all it is a good camera, especially for $299.00. Images are sharp, vibrant with good color saturation. This camera also does OK in low light. Most video cameras don't do well in low light so I wasn't expecting this one to take great low light video. The results were better than I had expected. I would like to have seen a shoe on top to mount a video light. And yes the auto focus is the main weakness of this camera. It is slooooow! I have invested about $3000.00 in a semi-pro Panasonic which takes fantastic video and has no weaknesses except that it resides in a large heavy case. On the other hand, my little Samsung is very small and light. It is the camera I will take on my upcoming trip to Italy. That's why I bought it. It should do just fine.

I bought the HMX-H100 because it was a 1080 camcorder at a reasonable price. The camera is easy to use for a consumer-oriented product. The software is pre-installed on the camera (Intelli-share) but can also be installed on your computer. Video quality was jerky (despite image stabilization) and it was not as crisp as it should have been. The auto-focus doesn't do well in action scenes also. If you try and upload it to YouTube through the Intelli-share software, it will only upload in 720p. If you save the file as a Windows Media 9 file (1920x1080/max quality/30fps) then upload it directly to YouTube, it will upload as a 1080 file. Either way, if there are stops and starts to the video, it does not look good. I was looking for an easy to use camera (met this requirement) that could be used by a casual/home user without too much technical knowledge (met this requirement) that produced high quality video (did not meet this requirement) during normal use (handheld, no tripod, movement: did not meet this requirement). You can see the two sample videos I uploaded by searching YouTube for "Samsung HMX-H100 Test 1" and "Samsung HMX-H100 Test 2". For the price, it's serviceable but the image stabilization and poor video quality do not justify this camera over a Flip HD camera.

I've had the camcorder for only a couple of days. I'm a glutton for punishment with these Samsung's. I also own the MX-10, the MX-20 and now this model. Each iteration of the camcorder (they are closely related in design, both inside and out) shows some remarkable improvements, but also some disappointing flaws.

The only thing I'll speak to here is the 1080i performance. (This camcorder does not record in 1080p. Despite the phrase "Full HD" on the camera stickers, it's not really FULL HD).

The video is interlaced (hence the "i" in "1080i"). That alone causes many video encoders to create blurry video. The camera's native format is MP4. Even using Quicktime Pro v7, the video reproduction is choppy and frankly, unwatchable.

A serious firmware update is needed. Sadly, Samsung is not very good about following up on their products when it comes to firmware or software updates.

Having said all this, if you use the 720p setting, you get pretty good video. Still images are okay, but you can't magnify them much or you'll see a good deal of artifacts. As with most camcorders that also take stills, you're not going to get the same quality that you would from a dedicated still camera.

For the price, it's a fairly feature-rich camera. However, after owning essentially three generations of the same camera, I am disappointed that I can't even playback my 1080i video on my HDTV.