Customer Reviews

Samsung SCD67 MiniDV Digital Video Camcorder with 2.5" LCD, Picture in Picture, & Digital Still Capability

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(13)

 

 

OVERVIEW: I've had this product for quite a while, before I get to the pro's and con's here's a quick look:
It's a good deal for the price I bought it. The camcorder comes with a lithium ion battery that lasts for 6 months; this battery keeps your settings and time going. An SBL110 1-1.5 hour battery comes as well (it takes app. 2 hours to charge the battery fully), this battery runs low pretty fast, so I'm going to get the SBL220, which lasts an hour more. The set comes with a worldwide AC Adapter and an AC cord. Along with all of this come the Audio/Video cable, a great instruction book, and the adjustable shoulder and hand strap. This camera uses only Mini DV tapes and has 500 lines of resolution. I had to buy a bag for this camcorder (Vidcam 3 fit perfectly for my camcorder, camera, and tons of accessories), and of course tapes. Everything is easy to use once you practice for a little bit, then you realize this is a great camera.
This camera come with the following functions: Digital Image Stabilizer, Picture in Picture, 22x zoom which is about twice the normal zoom of most cameras and is great, and 500x digital zoom. The camera has adjustable or auto setting for shutter speed, back light compensation, manual and auto focus, white balance, and IRIS (quantity of light that can enter the camera). Still pictures are available in photo mode. Also you can record in SP/LP mode and 12-bit or 16-bit audio. 16-bit audio is much better but doesn't allow audio dubbing as the 12-bit mode does (audio dubbing available only in SCD70 version). This camera features a demo, which shows the functions this camera, and has a date/time function. This camera has two modes, camera (for recording), and player (for playing back). The Record lamp can be turned on or off, according to your preference. The LCD has 112,320 pixels, which is very good.
The Digital Effects included are: ART (coarse effect), MOSAIC, SEPIA (red-brown pigment), NEGA (negative), MIRROR (two images side by side), B/W, EMBO (3-D, embossing), CINEMA, MAKE UP (yellow, red, green, or blue color), and GHOST (dragging effect.) Also another extra effect is fade in and fade out which is activated by pushing a button while recording. This effect slowly fades in/out the sound and picture while recording, this is great for ending or beginning recording.
You can create your own custom setting by using the custom feature and saving these. Once you press the custom button all of your settings will reappear for the video you want to make. The other is easy setting, which is for beginners; it turns all of the setting to off except DIS.
Technically this camera has the already programmed Easy setting for beginners, your own professional (custom) setting which you make, and it also saves the changes you make to your regular settings, which I use most of the time. To make things more clearly, you don't have to use the easy or custom settings, they are extras, somewhat comparable to Word files on your computer that you can choose to use. While the regular settings (system files) are the one's you'll use when you don't press the easy or custom button to activate the easy or custom mode. This might sound confusing but it really is simple, and Samsung did a great job making this an easy camera to use.
The IEEE 1394 Data Transfer requires: more than 64MB RAM, IEEE 1394 card (not included), Windows 98, ME, XP, or Mac OS, and Pentium III 450Mhz compatible.
This camera weighs approximately 2 lbs. with the battery and cassette.
PRO:
*Affordable
*Many features
*Easy to use
*Nice design
*Excellent picture and sound quality
*When I got this camera Samsung offered a 3 month warranty extension for filling out a survey
*Great Wind Cut option, which eliminates the noise of the wind completely.
CON:
*Buzzing noise emitted on playback when zoom function is used.
*The Date Time feature either resets completely or is many hours behind when the camera isn't used for a certain period of time. This happens very frequently and if you don't check the date/time before recording, you could be in trouble.
*Battery runs low very fast
*Horrible camcorder for use in low-lit places.

I hope this review was helpful to you so that you can make the right decision, the only reason I give this camcorder a 4, is because I don't know how well it will react to the test of time.

I actually originally purchased a JVC digital camcorder. I should have listened to the other Amazon reviewers and steered clear of that one, as within an hour of use, it stated that it needed head cleaning, and wouldn't operate.
This Samsung camcorder replaced that one the day after I purchased the JVC, and I am very pleased. The picture and sound quality are great, and it is very easy to download the video to my iMac via firewire. I'm not sure how well (or if) it would work on a PC, so you may want to investigate whether it will work with your system.
About the only thing that keeps this camera from getting 5 stars is I have had difficulty trying to retrieve still photos when the camera is connected to the computer- but then I haven't fully read the manual, so it could be very simple.
Basically this is a great camera, and it's not much more expensive than a high-quality digital still camera. If you enjoy having multiple-use products as much as I do, this is a great bet.

This camcorder kicks!! Very easy to use , nice LCD screen , easy to download to PC , nice built in special effects,and well built machine.I have loved the samsung brand name since thier great cellphones.The only thing that could get it 5 stars is a seperate memory card for pics. But, honestly, if your looking for good quaility digital pics, stick to a regular digital camera.Buy this for video. Suggested accessory : Pinacle systems Studio DV --- Awesome Quality

...I bought [the] Samsung... it has great design, small, light, not many confusing buttons, so it is very simple to use. At the same time, it has many special effect choices if you want to edit. video & sound quality is great. Also, it has x22 optical zoom unlike ...JVC or Panasonic models, which offer only x10 optical zoom. It make a whole lot of difference. The "Easy Q" & "Custom Q" buttons make setting the recording options so easy. Just press "Easy Q" button, then anyone can record video w/o any problem. It just chooses the best setting by itself. If you are looking for a separate storage for pictures & USB connection & remote on top of this model, you should look for SCD-77 model. ... Simply it is best at what it should do - taking great quality videos & playing them. I highly recommend them.

I'd carefully researcged miniDV camcorders and picked the Samsung because of the price and features (quite a lot for not much $). I'd also read the reviews and figured that most people were satisfied with theirs and thought it unlikely that I'd get a dud.

Well, only about a month after we got ours, the "play" function stopped working -- and I found that no one in LA will service the Samsung under warranty. So I sent it back to Samsung's main service center -- it took about a month (and two phone calls) to get it back -- and it STILL doesn't work. It doesn't look like they did anything to it (aside from the new scratch that wasn't there before). I am sending it back, and we'll see what happens this time.

But save yourself the trouble and spend a little more for a better-known brand!

I purchased the Samsung SCD-67 for all of it's great features and low price. I was very pleased until I needed warrany service to fix a broken firewire (IEEE1394) port. I called Samsung support for 3 weeks before speaking to someone knowledgable enough to ascertain it was a true problem (his name is Mike . . he's the only one there who knows anything about this camera). I mailed it to CVE for warranty repair. 4 weeks later I started calling to inquire. After 2 weeks of calling, I finally got through to learn that the unit could not be repaired and would be replaced with a refurbished unit. The camera had 45 minutes of use on it when I sent it for repair and I get a refurbished unit in exchange? What kind of warranty is that? I submitted a Better Business Burea complaint. I'd encourage others to do the same. You can submit the claim online...Just look up Samsung in Mt. Arlington, NJ.
I will never buy another Samsung product again. Buyer Beware!

After downloading the manual from the Samsung web site and seeing that it support the Mac OS I decided to try this camera. The camera specs are great but I had problems with the camera. First off, it has a real SLOW focus and there were times the system picked up on foreground objects and tried to focus on them. Not a bad thing but it takes about 3-5 seconds for objects to come into focus.

The second problem is the IEEE-1394 port does not work with the Macintosh. After 4 calls to Samsung tech support I got the promised call back about Macintosh compatibility. They recommended a few windows programs for the data import. The 5 call into them they admitted the SCD67 did not work with a Macintosh. If you plan to use this camera with iMovie or Final Cut Pro get a different camera. The applications can not even see the camera. I tried 4 or 5 other IEEE-1394 capture applications on the Mac and none could pull data from the camera.

The power switch broke after 180 minutes of video. I am unable to turn the camcorder off. It's the switch that goes from, "camera-off-player". In the official review, it notes that the switch is flimsy. I should have listened.

In addition my camera has problems keeping date/time settings. It will revert back to Jan 1, 2001 often. During the use of the camera with the first 3 tapes, I've had to reset the date/time over 15 times.

After researching for months I found this great machine. It is easy to use and a awesome price. Why bother with features you will never use, I already own a great digital camera (Canon Powershot S100)and basically wanted a camcorder for video. If your looking for a great looking cam at a good price search no more Samsung is the way to go. Great job Samsung!!!!!

My scd67 has a vertical grey bar off to the right side of the image. Due to cropping, it is not normally evident on the LCD viewer or TV playback. But it does show up when capturing through firewire. And the DIS (digitial image stabilization) feature "drags" this distortion into the frame when panning, far enough that it does show up on LCD/TV. This makes the DIS feature useless. Which in turn makes zooming difficult/useless.

Getting support from Samsung required *way* too much persistence. Only to get gems like, "Oh, your firewire is broken." Or "Try another software package." Jah, like this is a Premiere problem.

Many moons later, I finally got an RMA to send it to CVE. After reading another victim's comments here, I decided to try contacting CVE to discuss the issue before shipping it off. Sure enough, phone calls and emails go unanswered. Evidently CVE is Samsung's farm league.

This is an otherwise decent/functional cam, but this particular defect is a showstopper for me (I can live with the broken date/time). Support is abysmal. Buy something else, I wish I had.