- Average user rating: 1.5 stars out of 8 reviews Back to product review
- My rating: 0 stars
Full user review
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4.0 stars
"Decent camera for 3 years running! :)"
Pros: Flexibility; Battery Life; Features; Light Weight; 16x9 Aspect Ratio; Strong Zoom; Easy-To-Use Controls; Reliability; Remote Control; Inexpensive & Durable Media
Cons: Auto Focus is very finicky
Summary: Unfortunately, the Internet can be a host of many negative comments posted regarding mfr's products or customer service, while the positive aspects for these same items fall by the wayside since we always expect our purchases to be perfect every time and as such very few people list positive reviews in almost every case. Use an objective mind when doing your Internet research.
That said, I've had my SC-DC164 for about 3 years now and I really enjoy it and find it to be completely reliable. It formats discs very quickly and for the most part is quite easy to use. I use Memorex DVD+RW discs almost exclusively and have had zero problems out of them in all of these years. I also have not ever had my camera exhibit the lost data or disc errors that others have mentioned here.
I can only find a single fault for my trusty little friend: The auto focus rarely can find happiness when I'm zoomed-in on something. The closer I am to the object, the worse this becomes. Perhaps this has something to do with trying to use it for near-macro situations, I don't know. No biggie - I merely hit the AF/MF button on-the-fly while still recording and then set the focus perfectly. One more tap of that button reenables the auto focus feature as the recording continues.
The battery life is surprisingly good on this little guy. I have a similar photo camera from Sony called a Mavica. It uses mini CDs to record its pictures, in lieu of a memory card. It's a fantastic camera and I love the ability to use inexpensive, reusable CD+RW or +R discs which are very lightweight yet durable, and it's simple and highly affordable to take several discs with you on an excursion. The Sony camera doesn't have as good of a battery life as my Samsung video camera which is a bit surprising. I'll owe that to the Sony's even smaller lithium battery.
At the end of the day, my faith in Samsung's fantastic quality is on-going. I have many of their products in my home and they have all been of top-notch quality and total relability. This little video camera is quite handy and very simple to use, although not perfect. For similar money [the camera is selling for about $299 nowadays], you can get much more feature-packed machines from big-name manufacturers. If you can find this camera for a steal, I'd give it a big thumbs up.
Where to buy
Samsung SC-DC164 - camcorder - DVD-R (8cm), DVD-RW (8 cm), DVD+RW (8cm):
$499.00
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Amazon.com Marketplace
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$499.00 | Yes |
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