Samsung SC-DC173U

good prodect works great good imge .realy small easy to store.really like the brand samsung .thanks lol

NO SE INGLES PERFECTO YO YA COMPRE ESA CAMARA Y NO NESECITO MAS CAMARAS POR AHORA LE PIDO ALA COMPANIA EBAY QUE TRADUSCA Y LES DIGA QUE YA ESTOY EN PERU Y NO LES PIDO NADA ANADIES POR AHORA OK GRACIAS

Again, this was another Christmas present (Dec 2007) and was purchased new from a retailer. The old camcorder (30 minute tapes and such) was getting tired and no longer keeping up with the electronic devices that are now on the market.

The Samsung SC-DC173U has been OK in recording the family events. I did manage to have one disc not format after the recording. You could see the home movie on the LCD screen, but the disc would not format so it could be removed and played in the DVD player or computer. I came up with an idea to play the movie from the camera to the computer (via software and cable) and that's how I got the movie off the disc. I love editing the movies and making bigger runs of home movies, so I was concerned about the formatting of them later on. It seems to be a problem. Just google the issue and you'll see it's everywhere on the web. I try to use a high quality recording disc and hope future problems are avoided.

I like the camera with the features that it presents. You can record on wide screen or TV screen (4:3) and both images are fine. The 34x Optical Zoom is really nice. During a concert for my oldest child, I couldn't get good seating. The zoom feature brought her up close without any distortion of the image. One word of caution - and this is for any zoom work - use a steady tri-pod so the recording doesn't shake like an earthquake! My camcorder always has the tri-pod attached because of the zoom work.

Battery life is kind of short. Usually, you'll get about 30 minutes of record time on the battery. This is also the amount of time that the disc will record. You can preserve battery life by using the eye-piece instead of the LCD screen, turning off the built in light, and keeping the zoom movement to a minimum. There is a Digital Image Stabilizer (DIS), but does not work with the Digital Zoom.

There are a vast amount of features for the camera. You can record in various modes (B&W, Mosaic, Sepia, Pastel, etc.) and there is also a fade in and fade out option to make the movie more smooth. Overall, too many features for me (the average user), but it can definitely add some excitement to others who record.

I wish the unit was HD (High Definition), but it's not. With the newly purchased HD TV, you notice that the movie is not HD, and wish it was. As a side note, once you try HD TV, everything else is nasty. However, the camera work for normal TV/computer screens is good. The voice recording of the camera is also good. You'll also get some background noise (from cars, traffic, people), but it's nothing truly bothersome.

I would gladly take this unit as another Christmas present. It's light weight and easy to use. I've made several home movies with success and it captures the images of our family moments that bring back wonderful memories.