Samsung SCD23 MiniDV Camcorder with 2.5 LCD

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.

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.

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After owning this camcorder for only 14 mos. with less than 5 hrs. useage, the CCD element failed rendering it useless. Samsung customer support would only direct me to a local repair shop. With only a 1 yr. factory warranty ( mine was expired by 2 mos.), it cost me a whopping $197.85 to have it repaired making it a low cost camcorder with a very high price. Samsung doesn't seem to care as they don't stand behind their product.

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Wow! I bought this camera just before Thanksgiving to record some Holiday gatherings. I serously looked at about 20 different units and was torn between the Sony and the Samsung. The Sony has better low light performance but it is 30% more money. This unit is perfect for what I need. I took a video of my Mother making a family receipe in a low light kitchen, at night with only normal lighting (2 60 watt bulbs) and the detail was very good. The more light you have the better the picture but this is true of all cameras not just Samsung. Next we went driving arround looking for property to purchase on a cold partially cloudy day shooting video through the windows or hanging out the door. The detail was amazing. I shot video for over 1.5 hours before the battery died and am very happy with the results.

I bought a 64mg Lexar memory stick and can take up to 340 pictures at 320x240 pixels. These are not high resolution pictures but are good for web. You can also copy pictures from tape to the memory stick with a click of a button. This appears to be a much higher quailty picture. If you want to transfer pictures from the memory stick to your PC you can use the USB cable. If you want to transfer video you must use a Firewire card. Buy an Adaptec card unless you just like to figure out problems. This camera is easy to use and you can just put in a tape and start shooting but you need to read the manual and spend a good 2 hours playing with the unit before you get comfortable with all of the features.

Many of the problems I read about can be overcome by changing settings on the Camera for light levels etc. A solid product with features nobody else has at this price.

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While in record mode, standby... point camera at bright sun or bight light bulb at close distance ... It may take five minutes but my camera started working again... !!! Alleluia!! Seems I have to do this every time I use the camera, but I am happy that this works even though it is less than desirable...Samsung SCD23 seems has a common problem... I have used it infrequently for 3 yrs and It has worked fine until now. All of a sudden and for no reason at all, the LCD went blank and will not record any image. This is due to a faulty CCD??? Still plays tapes and records video... My childrens "hot Wheels" camcorder lasted better than this one!!!! My new baby is starting to walk and I...