A Usability Review of the Samsung SC-X105L Sports Camcorder with External Camera. Additional search terms: SCX105 SC-X105 We’ve been waiting for a product such as the SC-X105L for many years. All of the filming we do is with helmet cameras. All of the videos on this website were filmed using helmet cameras. The review below is from a specific point of view – that of someone who uses helmet cameras in extreme sports and conditions. We feel that our review is coming from the perspective of who this product is truly marketed to. There are features of the camera that are fun and functional for an below-average user wanting to film a soccer game, but “X” in the extreme marketing angle requires it meet extreme requirements. Overall, the SC-X105L is a failure from a video quality and usability perspective. The best elements from our perspective are solid-state storage and the external camera. The following review explains why it doesn’t work for most types of sports activities. We’re going to list them all, big and small in hopes that this information will get back to the product design team. 1. The external camera cables do not stay connected! There’s no interlocks, latches, etc. There’s nothing worse than finishing an extreme sport activity that took you hours to setup and then realizing that the cable came out. We’ve had to resort to duct tape to make sure things don’t come apart. 2. When you turn on the power it does not stay in “external video mode”. If you use the external camera regularly like we do, this is very annoying. Just picture someone with all their ski gear or skydiving gear on, and having to pull the little SC-X105L out of a pouch, turn it on, and then go through the menus to put it back in external camera mode. And, “no” the preference setting to remain in last mode does not work for the “external video mode”. 3. External camera – Poor usability. The external camera setup is very difficult to use, so much so that my SC-X105L has sat on the shelf since we bought it. There are 2 buttons associated with the external camera. The 1st is the external camera power button. This button is: A. Too tricky to push (especially in cold weather) B. No tactile feedback (clicking) which is essential in extreme conditions. C. No audible indicator that it turned on, which means you have to physically look at the LED on the camera or pull out the SC-X105L. D. Why even have the power button the camera, it should combined into the start/stop REC button on the external camera wire. Again, when you’re ready to roll you don’t want to have to dig out the SC-X105L and push buttons and look at screens. Prior to extreme activities you need equipment tucked away and secure (which takes time). The 2nd button is on the wire connecting the external camera to the SCX-X105L. This button is used to remotely start/stop REC. It’s way too hard to push (again in the cold is even worse) and minimal tactile/audible feedback which forces you to crimp your neck down to view the tiny little LED on the button. This button is a great idea but it’s usefulness is negated when combined with the cumbersome power button on the external camera and the fact that you have to pull the SC-X105L out to put it into external camera mode! So, really why even have this button since you could just push record on the SC-X105L unit itself? What the 2nd button should do is as follows. The 2nd button should act as a “power on, go to external camera mode, start recording, emit loud audible beep” button. One press and you’re rolling. A second press would “stop recording, emit loud audible beep, and power off”. Simple, effective – USABLE. Finally, the auto power off function of the camera is unwarranted. With ALL the messing around you need to do to get the external camera and the SC-X105L ready to start recording, the camera will have shut off by the time you’re actually ready to go! Especially in environments where you have layers of protective clothing on that adds time to pulling out and putting away the SC-X105. It should at least be configurable, such as disabling it or adjusting the amount of time before shut off. 4. External camera – Hardware durability. We’re just going to list these out. Included mount is for side mounting only. The external camera mount is designed for “on the side mounting” on a helmet. We prefer to mount cameras on the top when chase filming. Top mounting gives a better perspective, stability, and much more range of view. When you rotate the camera inside the mount for top mounting the power button for the external camera is no longer aligned with the cut out in the housing. This translates into making it even more difficult to press the power button. CMOS sensor. Not sure why they chose a CMOS sensor, maybe because of it’s better handling of direct sunlight. The overall image quality is poor and the color quality is lacking. When you compare the SC-X105L camera quality to the external camera quality it’s quite obvious. As a side note – The video fidelity of both cameras is poor. Poor battery location for the external video camera. Batteries are located in the actual external camera. This is bad. Power should come from the SC-X105L unit via the external camera cable. The external camera is subjected to the elements, mainly cold air and/or wind chill factors that will quickly reduce the effectiveness and lifetime of the batteries. Don’t expect more that 30 minutes out of the external camera if temperatures are below 50F. In general, don’t expect much life out of the AAAs in any conditions. No removable/replaceable lens cover for the external camera. What happens when you take a digger and scratch the lens cover on the ext camera? You’re hosed. 5. Video quality. This was a real disappointment. This gets a failing grade for sure. Even if all the usability issues were fixed, this would render the SC-X105L useless. The only video mode that is OK is the superfine mode. Even then, Superfine mode when compared to a Digital-8 or MiniDV output is unacceptable. It’s grainy and pixelated. You really can’t even compare them to standard DV camcorders. Also, superfine mode really limits the amount of video you can shoot. You basically need to spend another $500+ on multi-gig, fast MemorySticks to get you in the 20-30 minute recording range. Non-NTSC compliance. When using the external camera mode, for some reason the video output switches to a resolution that is not NTSC compliant. 704 x 480. Why the change? Probably something to do with the CMOS in the external camera. This is another minus because when editing footage your aspect ratio is funky – further affecting the overall quality of the video/viewing experience. 6. Size. Small is nice, but this thing is too small. These are assumptions, but they’re probably right. It’s so small the battery is also small. My 4 year old MiniDV camcorder will outlast the SC-X105L by at least 60 minutes. Small battery + small enclosure = limited cpu/processing power = poor compression algorithms = poor video quality. It’s a size that fits in your pocket which is great, but if you want to actually film sports while you’re doing them you need better usability, longer battery life, and better video quality – that being said – it probably could be a bit bigger. Or, the next version will use smaller, faster, better technology and the form size will work. Ok, that’s about it for the negatives. What are the things they did get right? No moving parts, aka solid state storage. This is good. Being able to pop a MemoryStick into the PC or just connect via USB and transfer all the video quickly is HUGE. Often when we get back from excursions, it takes a long time to transfer video to the PC. 1 hour of video = 1 hour to transfer. This is not the case with the flash based storage. Solid state is also means NO VIDEO GLITCHES when you do 3 cart wheels down a 30 degree slope going 20 mph. My tape based camcorders actually do quite well with massive G-forces, but solid state is bullet proof. Samsung made a great first attempt at a true extreme sports video setup. Small, lightweight, solid state, and with an external video camera. The price range is acceptable, but in the future we would hope to get better video quality for the price. Shipping an external camera with the SC-X105L. At least Samsung they understand that there is a market out there for this type of product. We’re looking forward to tighter integration between the external camera and the SC-X105L. That is it. We just sold our SC X105L on eBay, and only lost about $200 on it. So, we’ve recouped our losses a bit. We welcome any feedback or comments on my review. Thanks Ryan and Chad Lancour Two Brothers Video Productions chad@twobrothersvideo.com