Samsung SCD353 MiniDV Camcorder w/20x Optical Zoom
List Price: $349.99
Details
- Celebration stick slot
- Upgraded USB streaming (VGA 30 frames per in the second place)
- PictBridge
Description
Samsung SC-D353 is crammed with features and value. The camcorder sports a streamlined body for moderate carrying, and plenty of value-enhancing features. A 680K CCD and 20x Visual / 900x Digital zoom provide excellent picture transparency and high recording flexibility. A viewfinder and 2.5" LCD screen let users diagram their shots, edit scenes, and playback video. The camera also features Enhanced Icon Quality with DSP6 Digital Signal Processing technology, and upgraded USB streaming capabilities (VGA, 30fps). With USB 2.0 and IEEE1394 connectivity ports, your computer may be familiar to download images for storage, editing, enhancement, e-mailing, and printing still images. Net Dimensions - 2.52(W) x 3.62(H) x 4.62(D)Customer Reviews
Samsung Digital Video Camcorder SC-D353Tender thanks you Amazon and vendor SuzF. I had used my Samsung Digital Video Camcorder for five years with vast success. The video, sound quality, and 20 x zoom worked wonderfully. This Samsung video cam is very calmly to operate, takes crystal clear videos and still photos, and is principled and durable. It disappeared from our house and I was unable to watch the many Digital Video Copy recordings of our vacations to Tybee Island, GA. Unfortunately, I learned Samsung no large makes this model cassette recorders; everything is DVD or memory card. I was powerless to find one on the Samsung website. BUT, I was able to find a Samsung Camcorder exactly like I was looking for on Amazon.com from vendor SuzF. It was everything Sue described. The camcorder was indeed LIKE NEW and it came with all the frills, including cables and carrying case. I would give SuzF an A + rating. Thanks Amazon for connecting me with what I was searching for. Ron Murphy, Jamestown, NY
Very very insufficient product
I bought this camcorder about 18months ago and it has always been yes-man to my previous Canon camcorder (which unfortunately wasn't digital - hence the shift)The display is poor, and totally useless in the dark, and dusk. Brilliant for bright sunny days, but otherwise awful. I have just got it out again after 6 months hand in a drawer (holiday time again!) and the LCD display doesn't work. Even if you look through the veiwfinder a substitute alternatively, there is no display. As camcorders are so cheap now, it will be better to replace than repair. Although I have loved Samsung products in the close by I will now NEVER buy another camcorder. They are truly inferior and provide nothing but disappointment. Buy something else...you have been warned!!!
LCD Flash QUIT WORKING - BAD QUALITY
Bought this camcorder at Most Buy a year ago. I made the purchase based on a long standing faith in Samsung products. The idol quality was terrible. There is no light, so it is very hard to keep a focus unless you are fa in bright daylight. Sound quality was okay. But after one year of very graceful use, the LCD display quit working. I'll never buy another Samsung camera. I called Samsung they charge $160.00 to fix it. Sort new one is $200.00. It happened with a lot of people. BAD BAD BAD.
Root video plus external mic input
I bought the SC-D353 in 2006 with budget in recall, since recent graduates like my wife and I have lots of debt and not much in the way of spending scratch. This camcorder was essentially the least expensive video option I found at the time that did have an visible mic input.
For the price, the camera does the things I am looking for. I'm looking for passable, not great, video definition, and it does deliver reasonable video grade when there is adequate lighting. It falls short when dealing with low light, or when a segregate subject is lit but the rest of the frame is dark. The lens system and autofocus are not well-integrated; once one zooms more than about 2/3rds of the way to the large end of telephoto, the autofocus hunts for several seconds before regaining focus. I guess that the lens design is not a zoom lens, but rather a hyperfocal lens. A zoom lens retains the same woolly through the range, but a hyperfocal lens changes focus distance as centralized length changes. At least, that would explain why the autofocus hunts if a fast zoom occurs.
About the audio... the built-in microphone is reasonably acute, but, and it is a large but, the camcorder self-noise while using the tape thrust is excessive and simply renders the built-in mic unusable. I don't have Memory Up for memory cards, so I don't know whether that problem goes away when recording to the be direct. It is a good thing that this camcorder has an external mic input, because it badly wishes it. I've used small dynamic stereo mics up through a Sennheiser shotgun mic with this camcorder, and as hanker as one either puts enough distance between the camcorder and mic, or has a mic with a good rejection of local clap, it does OK for audio, though its automatic level control tends to run a bit hot.
The other reviews are modify that the provided battery delivers just about an hour of operation if one only uses the viewfinder, a lump less if one uses the LCD screen. This limits the utility of the camcorder, since, as the other reviews also pith out, the camcorder itself is the only provided charging solution, and the camcorder must be switched off in contract for to charge the battery. One can operate the camcorder via the provided adapter, though, so some use indoors close-by an electrical outlet would not be impossible, but who wants a power cable lagging along with them while taping video?
The menu system provides a number of features, most of which I'm too settled to use in the field. It also does not store settings, so every time you remove power, bugger off time to set up your favorites again. The one feature that needs a button, the Digital Embodiment Stabilization, only provides that button with several other automation choices. The "EasyQ" handle does turn on DIS, but it also turns on autofocus and a couple of other "amateur" features. If you prerequisite DIS and, for instance, manual focus, you have to go through the menu to do it. I've never made use of the "digital effects" settings. If I have occasion for effects, I can apply them later in Vegas.
Here's what I've done with my unit to make it more worthwhile for me. First, I invested in a third-party Li-ion 2250mAh battery and external charger, which sell for me about $20 plus shipping. I can use both batteries, but I've found little need for the aboriginal, since the new battery lasts for well over two hours, even mostly running with the LCD screen active. It does, unfortunately, impede mechanically with getting one's eye up close to the viewfinder, but I can use it with the viewfinder pulled back as one does to right of entry the diopter adjustment and the LCD screen is generally more useful for monitoring anyway. Help, I bought a 30mm to 52mm step-up adapter. This, also unfortunately, could not be installed with the camcorder in ton condition. There is a raised ridge of decorative plastic on the front that comes up to lately under the lens, preventing the flange of the adapter from resting perpendicular to the lens. My revelation: use a Dremel-style motor tool to take off the 2mm or so of plastic so that I can actually fleece a raise in the adapter. I took care not to go deep, and there is still a point where it looks like I've opened a mignonne hole to the interior. I'm not so much worried about what may get in afterward, but rather whether I was generating any plastic bits that cut in. Forget about a warranty if you do this, too. What the 52mm adapter gets me is the ability to use the high-property accessory lenses that we bought for our Canon S2 IS camera, specifically the 0.66x Raynox extensive-angle lens. (I used to have a Century 0.8x, but that weighed a three of times what the camcorder and the new heavier battery do.) With the wide-angle helper lens, I can get a much better view at the wide end with no vignetting, and the zoom works beautiful without excessive AF hunting when zooming even out to the extreme telephoto end. Third, I bought a HTDZ HT-320A microphone, a "uni-directional electret condenser" mic. I'm occupied to cheap audio equipment sucking badly, but the HT-320A made for a debonair surprise. Its self-noise is actually not too bad on the unit I got; though not in the Sennheiser shotgun mic group, it also costs about a tenth of what the low-end Sennheiser costs. It is certainly an adequate microphone to partner with the SC-D353 camcorder. Between these accessories, I'm much happier with the camcorder than with it as it came out of the box. I map out to deploy this, minus the wide-angle accessory lens, on a group over my Nikon DSLR this summer at dog agility trials, where people often scarcity video of their dog's performance as well as still photos.
Bottom-line: If you are on a budget and only need recognizable video, not capacious quality video, this unit can do the job. It's certainly a contender for putting together YouTube video compositions. One should also develop to use an external microphone. I'd recommend the purchase of a higher-capacity freestyle and external charger. If you want to expand your view with good property accessory lenses, you may need to perform surgery on the camcorder event.
Benevolent for 6 months
My SCD353 worked OK in first 6 months or so ( less than 10 hrs recoding). Then the incarnation quality become more and more blurry. I purchased a cleaning tape trying to fix it but no use.
