Samsung SCD23 MiniDV Camcorder with 2.5 LCD

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Manufacturer: SAMSUNG
Price at amazon.com: $349.94
This item is not stocked or has been discontinued.

Product Features:

• 10x optical and 400x digital zoom
• 1/6- inch 680,000 CCD for superb image quality
• USB and FireWire interfaces for high-speed video transfer
• Night recording mode
• Compact design for comfortable mobility

Product Description:

Description from Manufacturer:Optics
The SCD23 features a high-performance 1/6" 680,000 Pixel CCD to capture high-quality video and digital photos. It's also fitted with a 10X optical zoom and a 800X digital zoom lens. Digital zoom is a powerful tool, but it can lead to "jaggies"--zigzag contours that reduce picture quality. Samsung has applied a Digital Image Stabilizer to correct this problem.

Digital Stills and MPEG Video
The scd23 can cpature videos in MPEG4 format at a resolution of QVGA 10fps. In addition to high-quality video, the SCD23 also captures digital still photos that are stored on a memory card as JPEGs in your choice of three image qualities.

Inputs and Outputs
The SCD23 comes with an IEEE1394(In/Out), USB interface, Audio/Video Ports, and an S-Video Cable port.

MiniDV Format
MiniDV is the preferred format for personal and broadcast-quality video, highly regarded for its high audio and image quality. With up to 540 lines of horizontal resolution and minimum color noise, MiniDV delivers a 20-percent clearer picture than analog camcorder formats. This is all delivered on a cassette that's 1/12th the size of a standard VHS tape. A MiniDV tape offers digital recording time of 2 full hours--20 times the capacity of a CD.

What's included
Camcorder, AC Adapter/Charger, Battery Pack, Hand Grip, Remote Control, S-Video Cable, and Memory Stick.Average Customer Rating:

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Comment: Good Starter Rating:
Pros:Overall this is a nifty DV camera. I did some research before buying and am pleased with it. It also has a digital camera with a memory slot built in, (something that many other name brands in this price range don't have) and I found no problem hooking it up to my Mac with a firewire cable.
Cons:indoors, in low light ,the quality tends to be grainy. This seems to be true however with the other name brands,(yes even the Canon ZR80), in this price range of DV camcorders.

The most common problems that people have with transferring digital video to computer seem to be one of these three things.
1)A firewire cable,card or device is missing for transferral
2)The computer itself needs system updates(ex:Disk Utility) so that everything runs smoothly.
3)The Camcorder itself has a defect and needs to be repaired

I used Amazons rating system before buying this Camcorder, so thanks Amazon!

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Comment: Great little unit for basic digital video Rating:
Wow! What a nice little digital "starter" camcorder for casual, fun digital video! As far as I can tell from extensive comparison shoopping, its feature set is just about unbeatable at this price point ...The unit weighs little more than a pound, but has a quality aura about it, with all the buttons and switches feeling quite solid and substantial. I already had several Samsung multimedia devices (MP3 player and DVD player) before my wife bought me this camcorder for Father's Day (thanks, sweetheart!), so I had a certain comfort level with the brand's overall excellent quality.

Here are a few things any prospective buyer should know: Regardless of what the folks at the Samsung spare parts store may tell you, the SC-D23 absolutely DOES accept a memory stick for use as a digital still camera (640 X 480 pixels max resolution); but no stick is included with the camera AND the maximum-capacity memory stick the camera will accept is 16 megs. Also, the USB photo-download capability works only with PCs; therefore, Macintosh computer users will need to purchase a USB memory-stick reader to download their still photos.

Overall the controls are easy to use and fall readily to hand. The LCD display is bright; and the camera's "night pix" capability is lots of fun--it uses infrared light emitted by the camera itself to illuminate objects up to about 10-15 feet away; so you can shoot close-up video in total darkness. The "night pix" video function may not be very practical for the average casual user, but it's a lot of fun to play with and looks very cool green and "Desert-Stormish." The video color quality overall is good, and the sound picked up by the built-in external stereo microphone is also good; although the mic does pick up a bit of the camera's own operational sounds (whirring and such). There is also an external microphone jack.

Pros with this unit: Low price, strong feature set (including built-in light, digital still camera capability, FireWire and USB interfaces, and several video-outs including S-video), good manufacturing quality, nice picture and sound. Cons: No memory stick included, memory stick capacity limited to 16 megabytes; no USB video download capability; no FireWire or S-video cables included, no USB photo download capability for Mac users.

My wife and I plan to use this camera for taking casual video -- mostly of our grandchildren; overall, we are extremely pleased with the Samsung SC-D23.

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Comment: Terrific Value for your dollar Rating:
For the price that you're being asked to pay for a digital video camera, this is a great buy! The camera itself works great and I'm very happy with it. There are however, a few details you really need to know before making a purchase.

1. The included battery's life, I found, is really short. If I got two hours out of it, I was doing hand-springs. I ordered an extended-life battery and have been more then OK since. It was very easy to find and didn't cost too much.

2. If you REALLY want to take full-advantage of having a camera that uses DV, you HAVE TO HAVE a computer that has a 1394 Fire-wire connection and the horsepower to operate it properly. I didn't have that at the time and spent about another hundred dollars in extra RAM and a fire-wire card. Just a word of caution too, transferring DV is a BEAST on system resources; make ABSOLUTELY SURE to check your system specs to make sure you can cover the workload.

2a. ... there really is no reason Samsung couldn't have included a fire-wire cable.

3. The camera's quality in low-light (ex. - a candle-lit wedding dinner ... grrrr) is really suspect. It's astoundingly good when the lighting is good, but the video quality is really grainy when it isn't. The built-in light certainly helps, but only to a degree.

4. The camera won't recognize more then a 16 Mg memory stick for pictures. I went out and bought a 64 mg card and had to return it.

All that said though, this REALLY IS a great machine. Just realize before you purchase it that there are DEFINETLY extras that you're going to need to pick up to go with it. I didn't do my homework and had to do a ton of running around I could have saved mself. I'd hate to see someone make the same mistake.

Posted at November 11, 2003 07:59 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)