14 DAY TRIAL // Samsung may or may not have gone too far when it built the HMX-F80, a camcorder that got demonstrated at CES 2012 but has only now been formally launched.
This product is something that probably gave Samsung's product developers more than one little headache when they had to put it together.
The reason is that the amount of effort put into image stabilization had to have been enormous.
After all, zooming in or out of an image tends to make the effect of even the smallest hand twitches more pronounced.
Nevertheless, Samsung persevered and, in the end, succeeded in completing this camcorder whose optical zoom is of 52X.
As if that zooming wasn't already enough on its own, the company also drew attention to the 65X Intelli zoom capability.
Design-wise, the item is small enough to easily be held near one's eye during the shooting of personal videos.
Also, prospective buyers will get to choose between two color options, black and silver, for no price difference.
As for the rest of the specs, Samsung chose a 5-megapixel CMOS sensor and also gave the camcorder the ability to upscale video output to 1080i resolution when connected to a display via HDMI.
That way, even if the maximum resolution during recording is of 720p (1280 x 720 pixels), the image will be smooth and clear even on large panels.
Finally, Samsung's HMX-F80 boasts My Clip, Record Pause and Time-lapse recording and Smart Background Music.
For those who aren't up to speed on the last of these, the Smart BGM II (Background Music) function lets users sync their music with whatever movies they shoot, automatically adjusting volume under or over a video clip.
South Korean retailers should already have the thing up for sale at a price of 349,000 won, which translates into $308 / 237.21 Euro. Not too bad a price, overall.