Samsung SC-D80 Mini DV Camcorder
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- Recording System: NTSC
- Camcorder Type: Digital
- Recording Media: Mini DV
- Optical Zoom: 10x
- Weight: 3.25 lb.
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SCD80 review
Pros
price, remote control
Cons
cant use viewfinder and LCD st same time
Recommended it?
Yes
The Bottom Line:
Great features for the money, AV inputs, external microphone input are nearly impossible to find in the lower priced digital camcorders.
I went ahead and bought this camcorder despite being able to find much information about it on the web. Apparently its a pretty new model and thus the lack of information about it yet on the web. So far I really like it. Here are answers to some of the unanswered qestions I had before I bought it:
External microphone jack - yes it has a stereo external microphone input.
Svideo input and output - yes it has the svideo jack but doesn't come with a cable.
Analog to digital passthru - Kind of. It has analog inputs so you can hook up a regular vcr or whatever, but to get it out the firewire port in digital format you first have to actually record it onto a miniDV tape then rewind and play back the recording out the firewire port. It works great, (I have tried it), but of course it takes twice as long as if there where just a straight pass thru. I'm kind of surprised there is no passthru mode, but if there is, it is undocumented. I've gone thoroughly through the whole manual.
Audio recording of the cameras own motor noise - I won't lie, there is some, but not bad. I know this is a VERY common problem with many brands/models of camcorders. And its easy to see why. The audio quality and sensitivity of the built in microphones on the SCD80 are absolutely superb. It sounds fantastic. But at the same time, the great audio is the same cause of the problem with picking up motor noise - even though the motor's are very quiet the microphone is just so good it picks it up anyway. At least with this camcorder you have the option of using an external microphone.
I was disappointed to find out the internal Black and white LCD viewer turns off automatically as soon as the color LCD side viewer is flipped open. I thought it would be fun to flip it around so the person you're taping can watch themselves being taped while you view it through the internal viewfinder. Can't be done though. Oh well. I wonder if this is typical with all camcorders.
I bought a $35 Dlink firewire card which came with some software and a cable. After the oh so typical - download patches from Microsoft and reboot - I had it going within about an hour and its worked great since.
Another great feature is that it comes with a remote control. Its small, works great, and has a full assortment of buttons to control all kinds of stuff on the camcorder remotely.
Night vision - I don't know if its really useful or not but its been pretty fun to play with a couple times with all the lights out in my basement. You can record in total darkness, well everythings all greenish looking, and it really does work very well but only up to about 15 feet. (The manual actually says 10 feet, I think it goes a bit further than that though)
External microphone jack - yes it has a stereo external microphone input.
Svideo input and output - yes it has the svideo jack but doesn't come with a cable.
Analog to digital passthru - Kind of. It has analog inputs so you can hook up a regular vcr or whatever, but to get it out the firewire port in digital format you first have to actually record it onto a miniDV tape then rewind and play back the recording out the firewire port. It works great, (I have tried it), but of course it takes twice as long as if there where just a straight pass thru. I'm kind of surprised there is no passthru mode, but if there is, it is undocumented. I've gone thoroughly through the whole manual.
Audio recording of the cameras own motor noise - I won't lie, there is some, but not bad. I know this is a VERY common problem with many brands/models of camcorders. And its easy to see why. The audio quality and sensitivity of the built in microphones on the SCD80 are absolutely superb. It sounds fantastic. But at the same time, the great audio is the same cause of the problem with picking up motor noise - even though the motor's are very quiet the microphone is just so good it picks it up anyway. At least with this camcorder you have the option of using an external microphone.
I was disappointed to find out the internal Black and white LCD viewer turns off automatically as soon as the color LCD side viewer is flipped open. I thought it would be fun to flip it around so the person you're taping can watch themselves being taped while you view it through the internal viewfinder. Can't be done though. Oh well. I wonder if this is typical with all camcorders.
I bought a $35 Dlink firewire card which came with some software and a cable. After the oh so typical - download patches from Microsoft and reboot - I had it going within about an hour and its worked great since.
Another great feature is that it comes with a remote control. Its small, works great, and has a full assortment of buttons to control all kinds of stuff on the camcorder remotely.
Night vision - I don't know if its really useful or not but its been pretty fun to play with a couple times with all the lights out in my basement. You can record in total darkness, well everythings all greenish looking, and it really does work very well but only up to about 15 feet. (The manual actually says 10 feet, I think it goes a bit further than that though)
