Samsung introduced its three high definition camcorders that use Solid State Drive (SSD) rather than hard drives.  People like SSDs better than HDDs in a number of ways, e.g. they are lighter and since they have no moving parts they use less power.  These qualities make the capturing of video easier.  The three camcorders come with three different storage capacities, the HMX-H104 with 16GB, HMX-H105 with 32GB, and HMX-H106 with 64GB.  Even though the SSD camcorders are suppose to be smaller than the traditional hard disk camcorders, all the three cameras are rather larger than card based camcorders.

Like the other Samsung camcorders, the HMX-H105 is an easy-to-use device.  It has a responsive touch screen and an intuitive menu structure.  Any person new to Samsung products will have no problem in finding the options and try out the manual controls.  The biggest plus point is that if you do not want to inconvenient yourself with manual controls, you may opt for the EasyQ mode and let the automatic adjustments do the task for you.  The H105 has an elegant and simple user interface.

The camcorder fits comfortably in your hand.  The buttons are well laid out and labeled clearly.  It has a swivel grip that adds to the comfort and ease of use.  You can hold the camcorder in either a pistol grip or a flashlight grip.  This makes it easy to shoot from difficult angles.  The device offers better stability, especially due to the zoom toggle and record buttons sitting on the LCD panel, which facilitate easy two-handed recording.  It is a portable device measuring at 59mm x 60.9mm x 128.6mm and weighing just 380g.  When compared to the R10 it may not seem very robust but still is resistant to dust, scratches, and breakage.  Its touch screen is a fingerprint magnet, but that is true for any touch screen model.  Since it has 32GB of memory, you may not want to carry extra media or be bothered about transferring the footage.  The battery sits in a cavity on the bottom of the camcorder, not giving you the option of upgrading to a larger size.  Battery life on SSD camcorder tends to be much longer than on hard drive, tape, or DVD camcorders.  It sports a standard 2.7-inch LCD that flips out at 90 degrees from the body and rotates up to 270 degrees.

The HMX-H105 has an auto mode, but no other special features come with it.  You may want to shoot with or without manual image adjustments.  It offers a few low light modes like Super C. Nite mode, off, normal, and super.  It also has a Night option in iScene.  Like others, the H105 also comes with an array of scene modes, called iScene; these include Auto, Night, Sports, Portrait, Spotlight, Beach and Snow, and Candlelight.  The zoom toggle on the copy is an exact copy of last year’s SC-HMX20.  A rather flimsy toggle does not allow for variable zoom speeds.  There is a secondary zoom option located on the LCD panel that you may use with the thumb of your left hand.

There are three focus methods – the automatic focus, which is usually sufficient, you may do a manual focus by using the touch screen scale, or use Samsung’s TouchPoint system.  This feature lets you touch the object that you want to focus on and the camcorder will automatically set focus on that object.  The best is the manual focus where you can use a joystick or lens ring to achieve the perfect focus.  The touch screen focus is not too good as it fills the screen with icons that block the image you want to focus.

Samsung camcorders are not the best choice for audio flexibility, and the H105 is no exception to this.  It has a stereo microphone situated on the bottom of the camcorder.  It does not have any headphone or microphone jacks.  The only other thing that the H105 has to offer is the Wind Cut feature.

Even if the H105 does not have a whole lot of connections, it definitely has the ports that most users may want to use.  A single connection takes care of both the Composite and Component video.  USB, HDMI, and DC power all sit in the same compartments.  It has a traditional system of thumbnail views that you select via the touch screen.  Play/pause, forward, rewind, etc. have touch screen controls, too.  For still photos, there is a separate playback screen.

When compared to HMX-R10, the H105 does not offer a large array of manual features and resolution options.  It offers separate modes for video and still modes, which you control by a button on the back of the camcorder.

The options of manual image adjustments available for videographers exist for still photography.  It has options like a 10-second self-timer and continuous shot, which are quite few as compared to once available on the R10.

Samsung offers an exclusive capability to do time lapse recording.  If you connect your camcorder to a power outlet, you could capture footage of over a few hours.  The camcorder offers Optical as well as digital image stabilization; the OIS is better than digital stabilization.  There are a good number of digital effects accommodated, they include black and white, sepia, negative, and art.  They will really help you give a nice touch to your videos.  You may also apply Faders to your video clips.  The ones available are black or white fade-ins and fade-outs.

The stand out point of the HMX-H105 is the SSD.  Finally, a Samsung camcorder that includes optical image stabilization and this addition may prove to work in their favor.  However, you cannot rely on this camcorder for still photography.  It also fails in the department of manual controls and audio features.  On the positive side, it is a sleek and easy-to-use device.  Going by the standards set by the previous camcorders, it is sure to deliver an excellent video quality.

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