8.2

BenQ S21

After the using the BenQ S21 digital FULL HD video camera quite religiously for the last two weeks, we're finally ready to finish our review. From filming Melbourne city during the evening to touring the Aradale Mental Asylum built in the 1800's for lunatics, the camera ended its review with the must see ghost tour at J Ward Ararat during a cold and gloomy evening. Needless to say, the BenQ S21 was definitely put through the ringer but more importantly, what were our thoughts? Let's start at the beginning.

The BenQ S21 digital camcorder may be small in size but when it comes to features, it's easily one of the better choices on the market in terms of quality, performance and affordability. With a sleek design that actually feels quite comfortable and safe in your hands, the highlight of the S21 for us, was its night vision features. Unlike other digital camcorders, the technology behind this device allowed us to sometimes capture a whole new world that looked quite reasonable. Light is still a dependent fact and this plays an important part in capturing "night" shots. However, given this fact, the camera retails for $249AUD which is still great value.

Features

• Night Vision

• Full HD video and fabulous photos

• Motion Detection

• Flexible battery power

• Dual storage supply

Specifications

Upon receiving our test unit, the product comes with everything you need to connect your camcorder to a PC or a FULL HD television, courtesy of the USB and HDMI connections. And like most people, we wanted to start filming straight away and thanks to the intuitive menu system and simple installation process, we were filming in no time... once we installed the battery. The unit comes with an Lithium-ion battery that is quite a tight fit that we had to use a little force to push it into the camera. Thankfully it's easier to get it out.

In terms of design, the camera comes with a fold-out LCD screen, tripod mount plus two SD slots on the bottom and a USB, HDMI and AV out connection on the inside of the camera, once the screen is open. On the top, there is a button for taking stills and also a digital zoom feature. The back of the camera contains five buttons that include menu, mode, record/stop, play and a navigation button which allows you to go up and down plus left and right. On the right side of the camera, there is a battery door and a hand strap.

It's quite compact and  feels comfortable in the hand but more importantly, the design prevents any accidentally dropping which is ideal for filming at night. Although the buttons are relatively positioned in the right place, there were a few that seemed a little out of place but thankfully this is nothing major to when you're filming. As mentioned, the LCD screen can be flipped out and is a quite large at 7.62 centimetres or 3 inches with 230k pixels which is ideal for monitoring your filming.

We filmed a variety of situations with the camera that included our dog jumping in the air to catch her ball, the Ararat Ghost Tour of J Ward (unfortunately no spooks were caught on camera), filming the night skyline of Melbourne and even capturing a possum in our neighbours tree. From beaches to parks during the day to all sorts of scenarios, the BenQ performed quite well during the day. The only let down for the camera is the night vision which seemed too grainy. Images look acceptable but don't expect this unit to replace your digital camera or digital-SLR. Even so, I was quite impressed that taking photos is quite simple on this camcorder.

As the camera supports 1080p which is FULL HD, the movies were quite clear on our FULL HD TV. There was some jitter at times but it still did an exceptional job for a digital camcorder in its price range. The S21 also has a motion detection feature and by turning this on, the camera will automatically start filming when something moves in front it. An interesting feature but its real-world uses are quite limited as you forfeit all control of the camera.

As the camcorder uses a lithium ion battery, you'll definitely get some fair usage out of the camera and should your battery run out, you can easily slip in two AA batteries. This is another favourite feature of the camera for us as it's ideal for holidays or if you're out and about. The only issue in using AA batteries is that you cannot use the night vision features and we did notice that filming at night seemed to use additional batter power. For storage capacity, the S21 boasts two SD card slots that once again extends the usage of the device and solves my most annoying gripe, searching for a spare SD memory card. An SD card is a must for this camera as it only comes with 10MB of internal storage but allows for a whopping 32GB of memory via the SD slots.

When you're filming FULL HD movies with a resolution of 1920x180 at 30 frames per second, this will consume your memory in the camcorder. It is possible to drop the resolution from HD to WVGA and even Web but once you have experienced FULL HD, you'll definitely not to visit these lower resolutions. For still shots, the camera supports resolutions from 4608x3456 to 2048x1536 which in our opinion gives quite a few digital cameras of this price range a run for their money thanks to its 5 Mega Pixels sensor.  

Conclusion

For a recommended retail price of $249, the BenQ S21 FULL HD Digital Camcorder is definitely value for money and if you're looking a camcorder that supports FULL HD, an intuitive menu system and almost acceptable night vision, than I would recommend that you investigate this product out. For its price, it does quite a bit but if you're after something with better image quality, you may need to look elsewhere. Nonetheless, it's definitely value for money!