Customer Reviews

Samsung SCL700 Hi8 Camcorder with 2.5" LCD

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

Overall, I'd like to say that this camera is a beautiful and inexpensive camera with great features. I bought mine at [a physical store] becuase Amazon.com didn't have any in stock but it has 22x optical zoom, and 880 digital zoom which is amazing!! The main reason I bought this camera is beacuse I will be goin to Italy for this summer and also Tunisia and I needed a camcorder, (It is my first one). It has a PAL system built in which means that you can basically use it anywhere in the world. The visuals are great and it has digital effects such as, black and white, fade, black light, mirror, sepia, negative picture, art, mosaic, 16:9, and cinema. Maybe the only bad thing is that it doesn't have an image stabilizer but it doesn't really bother me beacuse the other Samsung that does costs about [much more]. I would reccomend getting a Camcorder bag and an extra Lithium-Ion battery if your going to use it alot. It has two features that one is, EASY which everything advanced is turned off, more for begginers, and then a CUSTOM setting where you can customize everything the way you want it. It comes with the AC Adapter and the cable, a Lithium-Ion battery, hand strap, shoulder strap, lens cover, and AV cables which work great! Another great thing about it is that it is very small and it has a light you can turn on that helps just as good as if you were in a pitch black room and you couldn't see and you turned on a flash light. I reccomend this camera to begginners and expirienced people. I LOVE this camera!!

We had used a decent quality camcorder before our son bought this one. This one has been a pleasant surprise. Although the picture quality might be more like 4 stars, the features that are provided at such a low cost make this a 5 star product. It has all the fundamentals for a beginner and it fits well in medium size and small size hands (unlike some that require two hands or very large hands or cost five times as much for a small form-factor). We had it out of the box in minutes and were recording first videos with it in less than 15 minutes. The price makes it affordable for school kids to have all kinds of fun projects with it.

..... Anyway, took this camera .... on a Disney cruise and impressed by the ease of use, wicked optical zoom, and awesome battery life (used the camera for 4 days (even for playback to watch the 30minute tape twice) and still able to video tape with no recharge.

The things I did not like about the camera are:

1) placement of fade button, and fact that I have to hold the fade, then stop recording (old Minolta 8mm used to fade when I stopped recording if fade on). Fade button only accessible with screen open, so if taping using eyepiece in bright outdoor light, then have to open screen (shaking camera of course) to get to fade.

2) Either have to display date on tape all the time, or not record it on tape at all. Old camera used to have auto date time option that displayed the date and time for about 5 seconds on first recording of the day, and wouldn't display it again until day changed. Not so with this as far as I can figure.

3) Eyepiece view kind of small. Have to use this in really bright sun when you can't see the LCD screen.

This is discontinued and you can get it now for $$$ if you can find it. I'm going to purchase the SCL-860 because it is same camera but newer version with image stabilization, photo mode, and remote control for $$$ ....

Pretty cheap for a Hi8 camcorder, but quality is unacceptably poor. The zoom lever is hard to operate, and when you put in a tape the mechanism makes tons of noise, really making you nervous. LCD screen is a little flaky, deciding to quit working occasionally so you have to turn the machine off, wait 10 seconds and turn it back on. It also destroyed a new TDK Hi8 tape this past winter. I think I wasted my money, and look forward to getting a Sony this summer when I get a new job.

My Fiance bought me this camera for christmas and so far I love it. We couldn't pay the prices of the nice DV cameras and didn't want to go with a low-end DV camera. This is a great starter camera and I'm sure will last me until I have a better job and can afford a nice DV camera. The design is intuitive and the camera runs really quiet (that seems to be a problem w/ other cameras). I'd reccomend this camera to anyone who is getting into video. You can always get a video capture card for your PC and digitize your video anyway!! :)

The on/off switch is stuck. I cannot therefore record or review tapes. I pried the switch and made a temporary contact and confirmed that the camera can record and play-back I would like to be able to return it for full credit or have it repaired.

I bought this new from sears in 2002 when my first child was born. Here we are three children later and still is are camera. Never have had a single problem with it other than the battery won't hold a charge much anymore but it's five years old. I even bought two new camcorders this year trying to update on technology I bought a Sony and a JVC hard drive model and they both went back the some day! This samsung took better indoor shots than both the sony and jvc combined! You think the new ones would have been better but the Samsung took way better inside shots. If samsung ever made a hard drive camcorder with the same recording quality lens as this one I would buy it again. This camera is probably hard to find nowadays but for the price you probably could get it at would really be worth it.

I bought this camera when it was new on display at circuit city and it worked great for a while but at some point the LCD quit working. I have had the camcorder close to five years and other than the LCD issue it is a great camcorder.

I'v had this camcorder for a long time. I believe my parents might have spent $250-$300 on it when it first came out. They got it for Christmas for me.. I might have been.. 14? (I'm 18 now) I'll tell you straight up that I never took care of it like I should have. We took it on vacation, I played around the house with it, videotaped my friends skateboarding, videotaped our shanigans and ran from adults with it in hand. I know I've dropped it, and most of the time it was kept on the floor of my bedroom. I still have it today, and it works just fine. Of coarse it's not the most high-tech digital peice of equiptment. In fact, this video camera is the only reason I still own my VCR. If you're looking for something not too expensive, easy to operate, and pretty durable in my opinion, this would be it. I read other reviews saying that other people had problems with parts breaking or certain things not working correctly, but my personal camcorder has never given me problems.

I just purchased this camcorder used for only $80. It is a great camera for the price. It's easy to use and the picture is good in quality. I bought it as a gift for my son (age 7) and he can handle it well on his own.