Samsung HMX-W200
Samsung’s entry in the waterproof compact stakes is well worth taking a dive with. Weighing just 140g, with a back-illuminated CMOS sensor for additional sensitivity, it’s a well engineered shooter for the money, with impressive durability. The company says it’ll survive a drop of 2m and will work 3m down in the drink. To that end, there’s an Aqua-filter giving optimised underwater colour balance alongside prerequisite image stabilisation; however the digital zoom is a paltry x3.
The W200 shoots 1080p/25 and 720p/25 MPEG-4 video, and will snap images at 5.5Mp. Movies and snaps are recorded to a MicroSD/SDHC card. Throw in some funky digital effects (fisheye, negative, sepia) and you have an appealing active compact. And considering the price, it's easy to recommend for the casual user who needs a knockabout camcorder.
Reg Rating 80%
Price £80
More info Samsung
Sony Bloggie Sport Mobile HD MHS-TS22
This ruggedized addition to Sony’s one-button record line of cam-pacts may only weigh 148g but it’s a game beast able to withstand a moderate soaking, sandy beaches and some rough and tumble in the woods. It comes in a choice of black, red and blue and features a 6.7cm/2.7-inch touchscreen which provides the main control interface. The tolerant F2.8 lens and Exmor CMOS sensor are sensitive enough to retain at least some detail when the light fades; after that you can call on a built-in LED lamp to brighten the frame.
The Bloggie Sport shoots crisp 1080/30p and 720/60p MPEG-4 onto the resident 4GB memory (no cards required), along with 5.1Mp stills. A SteadyShot image stabiliser calms BASE jumping jitters. Connectivity is good too – the camera has an integrated USB arm, for easy PC connection and charging; there’s also an HDMI output for direct TV connection. A bit pricey compared to similar models on test here and the fixed storage capacity seems meagre these days. But if you can live with those limitations, this Bloggie is a certainly worth checking out.
Reg Rating 75%
Price £179
More info Sony
Next page: Sony DEV-3 digital recording 3D binoculars
COMMENTS
Re: No GoPro?
In fact, not one really 'active' cam in the review: none can be mounted on bike/helmet/....
No GoPro?
Seems a glaring omission. They have mounts for attaching to pretty much anything, waterproof to 60m and used often by TV shows to film their action content. 3D kit, wifi streaming/remote control available to satisfy the geek in you too.
Vegas can do a Bob and Weave deinterlace to produce double framerate footage.
Agreed though, anything 25 based needs to be shot. Let us move on from differing framerates, nonsquare pixels, PAL and NTSC as quickly as humanly possible. It was a horrible nightmare best left in the past and made things confusing for non-savvy consumers.
How Bad?
Exactly how bad is the 15x digital zoom on the Panasonic HX-WA20, for instance?
I've highlighted the relevant term. That should tell you all you need to know.
Riot gear
Is there a model for filming riots in low light conditions? i.e. with an exposure control impervious to police strobing flashlights, with a strong strap for resisting assaults, and "hidden" internal buffer memory so no one can erase the last ten recorded minutes (or continuously uploading a lowres stream via 3G or 4G to a cloud backup site).
