I recently got my hands on a Samsung XC-300 digital video recorder. I’m downsizing my video outfit and decided to give this a try.

First impressions are really good. This thing is small. In fact it’s smaller than I thought it would be. That’s good for me as portability equals convenience in my opinion.

This camera also has some very interesting features. It doubles as an mp3 player and voice recorder. It also has some good manual settings for video including focus, white balance and backlight compensation.

The XC-300 can capture video at a 720×480 resolution. On superfine mode I get almost an hour of shooting time on a 2GB card. Given the low price of flash media today I’m fine with that.

So how does the video look? Its pretty good. Definitely not spectacular and not the same type of sharpness you’ll get with a mini-dv camera. I wouldn’t expect it to challenge mini-dv though. The videos come out best when you have really good light. Frankly that’s a requirement for most consumer level video cameras so its not a shortcoming of Samsung. If the main destination for your videos is the web then this camera will do you just fine.

The unit utilizes a Samsung rechargeable battery. I have not put the battery to the test in the wild yet. If I get two hours of shooting out of the thing I will be very happy since my plan is to use this for short (under 10 minute) video clips.

Another good reason to choose a camera like this over mini-dv is the fact that you can simply drag and edit your videos rather than having to burn them to a hard disk in real time. This saves me time and I am willing to give up some video quality in exchange for the time. You also save money (and the environment) by not using tapes.

If you are just getting into video podcasting and plan to shoot outdoors then give this camera some consideration. The under $300 price tag is reasonable and you can always upgrade to a higher end camera later if you really get into shooting digital video.