Customer Reviews
Awesome Camcorder!!!! 
2007-02-17
I love this camcorder!!! I have used it for about more that a year and I have been amazed by it ever since I bought it. If you buy a FireWire cable it makes the experience even better because you can import the video to the computer. I love the Mic In jack. It was just a couple days ago that the screen died on me. I was just about to film something and when I turned it on the screen was all white. I am very sad about it, but it is still usable. Other than that this camcorder is awesome!!!
Great Camera 
2006-12-27
I have this camera for about a year, i dont use it very much but its a great camera for outdors enviroments in daylight, once is getting dark, you will record a black screen, but thats ok for the price, besides, you can get a flashlight right?, and those cameras that has a light included dont have a very long range, the only thing really useful in dark conditions is the night vision or nightshot and that will cost a lot of money, but this is a great camera for recording that trip with your family or a day at the beach but not to record a disco party, and the battery does not last very long like for about and hour maybe less.
Solid camera if. . . . 2006-12-02
I think this is a pretty solid camera if you purchase the cord to attach by firewire. I was using the provided usb cord and I noticed a lot of what other reviewers stated about a grainy picture. However, I just purchased a firewire and the difference is astounding. I purchased the cable from Best buy for around 35 dollars, but you can get them cheaper, I saw one online for about 8 dollars. A very wise investment. It is a very crisp clear picture, when in focus.
The focus is a downfall, could be an excellent camera but it does have have trouble focusing. However, most cameras around this price have similar problems.
Battery life does stink, but i have an extra one in my case, and you can charge it when you record. I used it to video tape my wedding and our honeymoon to Rome. I am very satisfied.
So easy to use. I love it!!!!!!!!!! 2006-08-06
This is so easy to use. I love it!!!!!!!!
used and abused 2006-04-25
I teach video production at a San Diego high school, and bought six of these for the class. After seven months of the kids use and abuse, all but one camera are working perfectly. The kids are extremely rough on the cameras in spite of my best efforts, and I'm astonished that they continue to function so well. The one camera with problems has a broken screen, no doubt from abuse, but is still functional using the viewfinder. I'm confused about the complaints on battery life, with my kids leaving the cameras on for an hour without problems. A nice feature that may not matter to most people is the microphone input, which is not standard on most inexpensive cameras, but very useful in getting good audio during an interview situation. The picture is not the best, but very adequet for the projects the students do, which are shown on a 34 inch TV. Overall the camera is an amazing bargain, and built to last.
LCD DISPLAY QUIT WORKING - BAD QUALITY 
2008-05-21
Bought this camcorder at Best Buy a year ago. I made the purchase based on a long standing faith in Samsung products. The image quality was terrible. There is no light, so it is very hard to keep a focus unless you are outside in bright daylight. Sound quality was okay. But after one year of very light use, the LCD display quit working. I'll never buy another Samsung camera. I called Samsung they charge $160.00 to fix it. Brand new one is $200.00. It happened with a lot of people. BAD BAD BAD.
Basic video plus external mic input 
2008-05-08
I bought the SC-D353 in 2006 with budget in mind, since recent graduates like my wife and I have lots of debt and not much in the way of spending money. This camcorder was essentially the least expensive video option I found at the time that did have an external mic input.
For the price, the camera does the things I am looking for. I'm looking for acceptable, not great, video definition, and it does deliver reasonable video quality when there is adequate lighting. It falls short when dealing with low light, or when a single subject is lit but the rest of the frame is dark. The lens system and autofocus are not well-integrated; once one zooms more than about 2/3rds of the way to the long end of telephoto, the autofocus hunts for several seconds before regaining focus. I suspect that the lens design is not a zoom lens, but rather a hyperfocal lens. A zoom lens retains the same focus through the range, but a hyperfocal lens changes focus distance as focal length changes. At least, that would explain why the autofocus hunts if a fast zoom occurs.
About the audio... the built-in microphone is reasonably sensitive, but, and it is a large but, the camcorder self-noise while using the tape drive is excessive and simply renders the built-in mic unusable. I don't have Memory Stick memory cards, so I don't know whether that problem goes away when recording to the card. It is a good thing that this camcorder has an external mic input, because it badly needs it. I've used small dynamic stereo mics up through a Sennheiser shotgun mic with this camcorder, and as long as one either puts enough distance between the camcorder and mic, or has a mic with a good rejection of local noise, it does OK for audio, though its automatic level control tends to run a bit hot.
The other reviews are correct that the provided battery delivers just about an hour of operation if one only uses the viewfinder, a chunk less if one uses the LCD screen. This limits the utility of the camcorder, since, as the other reviews also point out, the camcorder itself is the only provided charging solution, and the camcorder must be switched off in order to charge the battery. One can operate the camcorder via the provided adapter, though, so some use indoors near an electrical outlet would not be impossible, but who wants a power cable dragging along with them while taping video?
The menu system provides a number of features, most of which I'm too occupied to use in the field. It also does not store settings, so every time you remove power, leave time to set up your favorites again. The one feature that needs a button, the Digital Image Stabilization, only provides that button with several other automation choices. The "EasyQ" button does turn on DIS, but it also turns on autofocus and a couple of other "amateur" features. If you want DIS and, for instance, manual focus, you have to go through the menu to do it. I've never made use of the "digital effects" settings. If I need effects, I can apply them later in Vegas.
Here's what I've done with my unit to make it more useful for me. First, I invested in a third-party Li-ion 2250mAh battery and external charger, which cost me about $20 plus shipping. I can use both batteries, but I've found little need for the original, since the new battery lasts for well over two hours, even mostly running with the LCD screen active. It does, unfortunately, interfere mechanically with getting one's eye up close to the viewfinder, but I can use it with the viewfinder pulled back as one does to access the diopter adjustment and the LCD screen is generally more useful for monitoring anyway. Second, I bought a 30mm to 52mm step-up adapter. This, also unfortunately, could not be installed with the camcorder in mint condition. There is a raised ridge of decorative plastic on the front that comes up to just under the lens, preventing the flange of the adapter from resting perpendicular to the lens. My solution: use a Dremel-style motor tool to take off the 2mm or so of plastic so that I can actually screw in the adapter. I took care not to go deep, and there is still a point where it looks like I've opened a small hole to the interior. I'm not so much worried about what may get in afterward, but rather whether I was generating any plastic bits that fell in. Forget about a warranty if you do this, too. What the 52mm adapter gets me is the ability to use the high-quality accessory lenses that we bought for our Canon S2 IS camera, specifically the 0.66x Raynox wide-angle lens. (I used to have a Century 0.8x, but that weighed a couple of times what the camcorder and the new heavier battery do.) With the wide-angle accessory lens, I can get a much better view at the wide end with no vignetting, and the zoom works fine without excessive AF hunting when zooming even out to the extreme telephoto end. Third, I bought a HTDZ HT-320A microphone, a "uni-directional electret condenser" mic. I'm used to cheap audio equipment sucking badly, but the HT-320A made for a pleasant surprise. Its self-noise is actually not too bad on the unit I got; though not in the Sennheiser shotgun mic class, it also costs about a tenth of what the low-end Sennheiser costs. It is certainly an adequate microphone to pair with the SC-D353 camcorder. Between these accessories, I'm much happier with the camcorder than with it as it came out of the box. I plan to deploy this, minus the wide-angle accessory lens, on a bracket over my Nikon DSLR this summer at dog agility trials, where people often want video of their dog's performance as well as still photos.
Bottom-line: If you are on a budget and only need recognizable video, not great quality video, this unit can do the job. It's certainly a contender for putting together YouTube video compositions. One should also plan to use an external microphone. I'd recommend the purchase of a higher-capacity battery and external charger. If you want to expand your view with good quality accessory lenses, you may need to perform surgery on the camcorder case.
Good for 6 months 2008-03-29
My SCD353 worked OK in first 6 months or so ( less than 10 hrs recoding). Then the picture quality become more and more blurry. I purchased a cleaning tape trying to fix it but no use.
good camcorder 2007-04-09
this camcorder is a good product, have a good zoom, for the pictures the quality is low, but is a good device.
Very good product but battery dies fast! 2007-03-12
Easy to use, setup and convert videos to PC. The problem is regarding battery life... Average rate is good.
