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Opinion Summary
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Samsung Makes A Splash!
by one4yu2c | Feb 02 '03
Pros: Features, multiple connections (including USB), excellent zoom, remote control, snapshot feature.
Cons: No VCR tape adapter for tapes (all Hi8 tapes, not specific to this model).
Return to opinion
OVERALL RATING
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Re: MiniDV camcorders are approaching $300 (Reply to this comment)
by one4yu2c
Thanks for the feedback! It's always helpful to see what others like and don't like to know. :)
You are absolutely correct that the further the digital zoom is utilized, the lower quality the picture will be. As far as it being "useless" however, would be completely dependent on the user. Granted, I cannot see the hairs on a fly's back on the opposite end of a football field w/ the 880X digital, but I would be able to zoom in on, say, a skirmish at the top of the stands. Most of the time, I will not utilize the full digital zoom, but all things being equal among comparable cameras (or close to equal), it is a plus in the Samsung's favor and definitely worthy of mention. Also, the optical is more than *most* others in the same price category as well, and 22X zoom is a very nice feature. However, again I do recognize your concerns about the quality with digital zoom and that was one reason why I didn't focus the review on it (zoom didn't even get a category of it's own in my review).
Your point about MiniDV cameras is well taken too. Had the same deal been around when I was shopping ($299 after $100 mail-in-rebate), I would have had to have given it a very close look! Currently about the best price I'm digging up is $399, with the top end hitting over $2-3K, and middle end being anywhere from $599-$999. For anyone willing to either spend $399 or wait for prices to drop further, MiniDV cameras are an excellent option. However, the price of the Samsung compared with it's features makes it a very attractive alternative, even if the hundred or so price difference isn't an issue. If the price is an issue (as was the case with me since I was limiting myself to the $275-$325 price range), then I can definitely say you'd be hard pressed to find a better solution than Samsung's offering.
Again, thanks for your feedback! I buy a lot of electronics and plan on posting more reviews in the near future, so it's nice to know that people are reading them. :)
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Feb 03 '03
2:32 pm PST
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MiniDV camcorders are approaching $300 (Reply to this comment)
by travelshark
Nice review. A couple of points:
- Comparing camcorders on the power of the zoom feature is not as useful as some other features. Especially digital zoom is practically useless since it comes at the expense of reduced image resolution. Most of the time, people use their camcorders indoors, and for this application, the wide angle feature is actually more important than zoom. Unfortunately, most camcorder vendors do not have much information on their product in terms of wide angle capabilities, so you pretty much have to go try at a store to figure this out.
- MiniDV camcorders are rapidly approaching $300 price range. Last week, I saw a Sharp MiniDV camcorder for $299 (after $100 rebate) at Amazon. However, your Hi8 camcorder probably has a much better lens and lower light sensitivity. If you are planning to convert your tapes to MPEG2, a computer with an analog video capture board usually can create the MPEG2 file faster from the S-Video input compared to the IEEE1394 (DV) input since the CPU has to spend extra effort to decompress the DV stream before it can compress it again in MPEG2 format.
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Feb 02 '03
1:01 pm PST
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It seems (Reply to this comment)
by e_commentor
a good camera at the price you have mentioned it. A nice review...Write more about other things too
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Feb 02 '03
9:19 am PST
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