Samsung SC-D363 MiniDV Camcorder with 30x Optical Zoom

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Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 8 x 10 x 6 inches ; 5 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 3 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B000E0DU4O
• Item model number: SC-D363
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #3,446 in Camera & Photo (See Bestsellers in Camera & Photo)

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  Camera & Photo > Camcorders > Digital MiniDV

• Date first available at Amazon.com: January 5, 2006

Product Description

From the Manufacturer
If you want a camcorder that’s easy to use right out of the box, with a powerful optical zoom and plenty of taping time, you’ll love this compact camcorder. Watch the crisp images appear in the 2.5-inch LCD or color viewfinder; when you’re done, you can upload stills directly to the printer, thanks to USB 2.0/PictBridge technology.

Get close to the action with high-quality zoom

SC-DC363 MiniDV Camcorder Highlights

30x optical zoom/1200x digital zoom
The camcorder’s high quality 30x zoom lens lets you get close to the action from a safe distance. And for those ultra long distance shots, the 1200x digital zoom will let you see it all in perfect detail.

SD/MMC slot
The Memory Camcorder’s external memory slot accepts both SD and MMC. Quickly and easily transfer and play videos, and view images using the memory type of your choice.

MPEG4 (720 x 480/30 fps),br> MPEG4 provides enhanced video image quality and maximizes the amount of video you can record. In addition, MPEG4 even lets you quickly and easily share video clips via email.

Digital Image Stabilization
The Digital Image Stabilizer eliminates the effects of shakes to ensure extremely sharp pictures even when zooming in for close-ups.

PictBridge
Give your PC a rest. Thanks to the PictBridge function of your camcorder, you no longer have to first download your pictures onto your PC before printing. Save your valuable time and energy. Simply connect a USB 2.0 cable to your PictBridge compatible printer and watch your photos appear. Printing, sharing, and framing your digital pictures have never been easier.

USB 2.0 interface
Allows for easy uploading of MPEG4 movie clips and JPEG still images to a PC.

Web cam
Connect the Memory Camcorder to a PC via a USB 2.0 cable and instantly communicate via live video with business associates, friends and family wherever you are.

16:9 widescreen recording
Samsung’s 16:9 recording option ensures that the entire image is recorded. Once your movies are captured in widescreen format, you can enjoy viewing them without having to lose any of the images on your wide-format HDTV screen.

Better sound quality
Samsung’s audio enhancements and effects reduce unwanted ambient sound, improve stereo separation, voice, and music playback, and let you add echo sound effects.

Playback option: Audio playback features modes for improved voice and music clarity, enhanced directional sound, and the option to add echo effects to soundtracks.
Recording option: Reduce unwanted ambient noise with Wind Cut Plus and improve stereo separation with Real Stereo recording audio enhancements.

Travel lighter
Samsung’s newest Mini DV camcorders are more compact and streamlined than the previous year’s models. Fitting comfortably into one hand, the Mini DV camcorder’s improved designs and ergonomics make capturing those important events easier than ever—wherever you are!

Product Description
If you want a camcorder that is easy to use right out of the box, with powerful optical zoom and plenty of taping time, you will thoroughly love the SC-D363. You can even upload still pictures directly to the printer thanks to USB 2.0/PictBridge technology.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

120 of 127 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not the best picture quality, May 12, 2006

By	Brad A. North "BradleyA" (Gladstone, MO) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This camera has a lot of extra features that a comparably priced Sony Camcorder might not have, but, I think because of the less than stellar video quality I may be taking this camera back for a comparably priced Sony miniDV camcorder with less features. The video quality of the Samsung appears to be plagued with a snow(or grain) like effect. The picture is not real crisp but not terrible either. I've recorded video both ways. On Sony miniDV 60-minute tapes and by streaming video directly to my hard drive via 1394 Firewire cable. One other thing you may notice in your recordings is that the auto-focus takes time to become clear. So that if you switch from a closeup to a distance shot or vice versa you will actually see blurry video while it is focusing. This can be kind of annoying also. Now, lets talk about the features of the camera. One of the features, which I thought was awesome at first, is not really even worth having since I've learned more about it and thats the ability of the camera to accept flash memory(SD, Memory Stick/Duo, etc). You can't capture DVD quality video to any flash memory you have installed because the camcorder will only record onto flash memory in a highly compressed format. And if you are thinking of using this camcorder as a digital camera also, you may want to reconsider. Digital stills on this camcorder(and even on comparably priced Sony camcorders) are fuzzy or blurry. Who wants to view blurry photos? Blurry photos and highly compressed video greatly reduce, at least for me, the value of the flash memory feature. This is only my second camcorder purchase ever. The first purchase was a Sony TRV-280 which I dont ever recall as having blurry video during focusing from near to distant shots and vice versa. I would need much more experience to make a more professional evaluation but my first impressions on this camera are that its not what I expected as far as video quality goes.

Edited: May 22nd, 2006
I did take this camera back to the store and returned it for a Sony DCR HC-26 camcorder. The Sony camcorder does appear to have a better picture quality. I do however give Samsung praise for the quality DVD software that comes with the Samsung camcorder.

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Handy little bugger..., December 13, 2006

By	Chuck U. (Florida) - See all my reviews

OK, this will contradict many before me. Tuff.

I use it, I like it. First, it plays my old tapes made on my expensive MiniDV I gave to my kid. Movie quality is OK+, even inside without pro lighting. Plays back on my 52" wide screen just fine. Sound is good. Feels solid. Handles tape smoothly. Samsung is good stuff, I've had lots of it. And I'm not looking for professional results...maybe for $200 that's what you get. Plus it works as a webcam.
Next, it's TINY. I like that. Many camera features, very good softwear. Manual is iffy but if you can think you'll get it. Movie clips on SD card lower quality but great for what I need...they are in AVI format, and you get an hour on a 1G card. Quick/EZ uploads.
Now, I admit the stills are washed out looking, but considering I, 1. have a photo editing program which helps and 2. I can use it for stills/movies on SD card, it's OK. Simple to use. The 30x optical telephoto is very good (using it with a card you don't get the anti-spaz feature). With tape you do. And it does take a little more time to allow it to focus under low light.
Finally, if you take some time and 'spearmint a bit as I have, it is clearly capable of a hell of a lot for a hell of a little in a hell of a cute little chunk of tech. I won't make phone calls though, bummmer.
Good for a first timer or an old timer who wants something HANDY/EZ!

15 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars You get what you pay for, December 2, 2006

By	Dwayne Bowman - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Poor picture quality when used in things like imovie, a constant "blob" appears in my viewfinder (no fault of my own), and the video workings are plain awful. The tape rewinds itself just a little bit after you finish your video taping. This means the next time you video tape, your last taping will be cut off. If you have important stuff on the end, you're out of luck. This is very annoying, and I have never seen a camcorder do anything like this. We're going to try to take it back.