I never had a camcoder but this season I wanted to get one because my dad is in the hospital suffering from cancer so I decided to purchase a camcoder to record some unforgetable moments. I'm glad I took this camcoder! It was extremly easy to use and for me it was the first time. The features of this camcoder are superb for this price tag. Get this camcoder it will make your life easy.

I liked the options, size and price. I thought Samsung was a good name for electronics, but I was wrong.

I bought this as a gift for a friend.

On the first week of use the battery clip broke and the battery would not lock on the camera. He was able to exchange the camera for a new one.

And for this years holidays the new camera was used to record family and friends. During the recording it broke again and only showed and recorded a bunch of lines.

And Samsung does not backup their products with a good warranty so now to repair the camera will cost around $60 US.

I would not recommend Samsung camcorders. I have had a Sony for years and have not at any problems with it even after I dropped it a few times; the Sony also has a better picture. I also have an old GE 8mm Camcorder that also has a lot of recording time on it with out every having a problem.

Please stay away from the Samsung camcorders.

I bought this camcorder because we were on a budget just having a new baby and wanting to record some video of her growing up. I first was scared because I didn't think the quality would be that good after it was uploaded to the internet. To my suprise the quality was phenominal!!! This is a great camera for starters. I live in Houston and it snowed here on Christmas eve so I went out side and used the light and then I used the night vision to take pictures of the snow falling and let me say I was amazed at the quality. The only complaint I have is that the stabilazation is not that great but then again I was using myself as the trypod so can't really complain. Practice will make perfect.

Also the camera comes with all the software and the s-cable, audio/video cables to hook up to the tv as well as a usb cable to connect to the computer and upload. You can use firewire also to transfer data but have to pay extra for the cable 20 something dollars.

I hope that this is is helpful.

At the start of our vacation this year our camcorder was stolen! We picked up this Samsung at a local Costco one day before arriving at Yellowstone National Park for a once in a lifetime trip.

My husband took movies all day and we did not have to recharge the battery (although we are getting a backup). The pictures were great! Although, we did see them on 3 different screens and each one the quality of the movies were different. On the large (60") screen they did look grainy but on a 32" they looked great. And we were glad that we had purchased it.

The only reason that I am giving it 4 stars instead of 5 is that I have not been able to hook it up to my computer via the USB cable and am online to order the other one. If all goes well I will readjust the stars!

My husband and I purchased this Camcorder and recorded our sons birth, which worked fine for the taping, but when we played it back the camera would not rewind and when we played it on the TV there was nothing but lines through the picture. We sent the tape to Samsung who said the tape could not be recovered and the camera was "off line" and could not be fixed. The tape of our sons birth is now bascially worthless. So we returned the camcorder and purchased another one just like it. It worked for 2 months and now when you play back the tape, the picture is all encrypted and the sound is nothing but static! Samsung camcorders are junk!!!

I purchased this camera a little over a year ago. A few days after the one month warranty it broke, it recorded and played everything with lines in it. We sent it to samsung to be repaired and they sent us a refurbished camera that had problems rewinding. Then they sent us a refurbished camera that wouldn't focus, then one that wouldn't record and now one that won't turn off.
The camera's all arrived to my house broken!!!
We have had the camera for a little over a year and it has been at Samsung's repair facility more than it has been in our home. I will never again buy a Samsung product!

I bought this camera at sams club. I didnt know anything about camcorders and this was my first one. Now that Ive had it for awhile, I know more about the features that I want. The cool things about this camera are the numerous functions, like letterbox, color saturation, black & white, etc. The DIS is pretty decent at close range. The mic pickup is great. The noise of the tape recording has never been a problem. The couple of bad things are that the opening for the Firewire and attachments is kinda clumsy. The film quality is very very good.Id buy again.

When this digital camcorder works, it records a nice picture and captures a lot of sound. It has, however, some major drawbacks.

Our first main gripe is the substandard battery. We've charged it overnight and then would unplug thinking it was fully charged. After one week we'd grab the camcorder and head out the door to capture a magical moment...only to find the battery completely dead.

After our third use, the camcorder now has some type of 'mechanical defect' as the manufacturer's manual calls it. The warranty is recently expired and so we're still debating whether to repair this item or just get another more reliable brand.

If you decide purchase this camcorder, be sure to get extra batteries and always keep one on the charger. Hopefully you'll get more use out of yours than we did ours.

I have also had problems with this camera. As soon as the warranty period was up, my camera stopped recording. I get a black screen when trying to record and the same plays back. I barely used the camera and always keep it in a safe place. I paid over $300 for a camera that I barely used and broke after the warranty ended, not a very good bang for the buck!

I bought this camera a little over a year ago and I have only had problems. First of all there is a very loud hissing noise from the gears that you can hear noticeably on tape. So I called Samsung in hopes that this was a common problem with a quick answer, and they said that they could fix it (which isn't cheap) or I could just exchange it for another. So I exchanged it for another and I had the same problem and I decided to live with it. There are more problems as well, for one the usb connection is miserable. The quality and clarity of the video using usb is as good as most digital camera videos. However the firewire works very well with reasonable quality. The audio on the tape is fair besides the annoying hissing. Although if you plan to use an external mic. to eliminate mechanical noises it only plays back through one speaker. Most recently I have had problems that the pixels on the camera are distorted and now there's a green line that doesn't show on the LCD screen but everywhere else. No, this is not a tape problem because I have tried other brands of tapes and when I feed the video directly to my TV. or computer it's still there. Overall do not expect good quality from this camcorder but if you really don't mind the hissing or you won't be editing videos on your computer you might want to buy this.

I keep seeing posts of problems with pixels, and with lines on the screen, etc. etc. etc....

Mine decided to do the same thing. And I thought mine was broken also. I even went to look for a service center for my camcorder. One night I decided to get a cleaning cassette for my camcorder. It ended up being the heads needed cleaning. Since I asked why the heads would need cleaning after such a short time, I found out that it had a lot to do with the brand of tapes I was using.

DV Camcorder Heads can get used to the build up of magnetic material of certian brands of tapes. Once you change brands, the tape is made slightly differently, and can cause this build up.

But we warned, when you get the head cleaner tape, follow it very carefully. Most tapes only allow you to clean the tape for a few seconds. (mine recommends 10 seconds, further, may scratch the heads) now it works perfectly for over a year.

I bought this at Sam's Club last year because it was the cheapest one left but little did I know how much I was really getting. I see people complain about hissing noises, bad image, etc. but I have seen none of that(plus I bought the extended 2 yr warranty for peace of mind). As for features, the memory stick slot is a big plus since they now come at over 1gig in size. I use video editing software on my PC to render videos directly from tape using the USB or the Firewire. It also has S-video connection for playback on my TV. I record mostly basketball games and I can have an entire game rendered as AVI or MPeg in under an hour. I bought a tape rewinder and two SB-L220 batteries (which lasts about 3.5 hours each and allows me to record up to 5-6 AAU basketball games in one day). I also bought a head cleaner which I use after recording about 12 games. I only use one type of MiniDV tapes. This camera has a really good zoom, plenty of onscreen options and you will be up and running in less than 10min. The only problem is switching tapes during recording because it has a bottom tape load and I use a tripod. Yep you are right I have to unclip the camera from the tripod, unscrew the base from the camera, replace the tape, screw on the base to the camera, and clip the camera back on the tripod during a 30sec time out. - Can't complain because because I now have a new skill to add to my resume:-)

Well, I'm glad I didn't pay for it. We won this camera Christmas 2004 as a door prize at a company holiday party. We probably got a total of 3 hours on the camera itself, and when we recently went to use it, flashing in the middle of the screen is the word PROTECTION!- baffled, we called Samsung customer service, and they explained that it is a common and known defect that can be fixed at a service center (at great cost) We explained that we had used the camera so incredibly little since we got it and asked if they could perhaps have it fixed for us. No dice- they wouldn't stand behind their product- and so I will continue on my policy of NEVER EVER buying Samsung products. Had they done right by me and my family, perhaps I would have changed my thinking toward them, but they've lost a customer for life. It's really a shame they don't think about things like that when they make those kinds of decisions. I suppose they really don't care though.

Like many other people who have already posted reviews, my camcorder stopped working just after the warranty expired. Everything seems to work fine, except one major part -- the lens. When in record mode, nothing but a black screen. Customer service will fix it if I send it to their NJ location for over $100 -- about half of what I paid for the camera. I had some hesitation buying the camera, as I had a similar experience with a Samsung DVD player. Not long after the warranty expired, the dvd became half-functional. That is, it plays, but nothing else. Seems like Samsung likes to make products that almost work. Lesson learned: never, ever buy anything Samsung makes, no matter how much of a deal you think you are getting.

Just like "wiseconsumers" experience, we had our camcorder for about 3 months when "PROTECTION!" started flashing across the screen. The first thing I did was check the cassette to be sure that the protection switch wasn't flipped and it was not. Then I checked every option under "menu" to see if there was some setting. Still thinking it was just human error, I started to check the manual and the web for anything I could find. Well, I found that I wasn't the only one who had a mysterious case of the "PROTECTIONS!" I haven't called samsung yet, it's too late tonight but after reading "wiseconsumers" post, I'm ready for a dogfight. At least he didn't have to pay for his . . . .

This is an awful camcorder. While under warranty the camcorder was repaired. The warranty had ended and I am having nothing but problems again.

My camera also quit working just outside of the warranty period. I am not able to play back ANYTHING other than a blue screen with the date via USB, component cables, nor the lcd screen.

I use this thing a couple of times every few months, and then, only for a few minutes. I am disappointed. While the cost of these items have dropped over the years, it makes it cost prohibitive to repair. I would rather spend another $100 and get a new camcorder. It won't be a Samsung, I can tell you that.

The buttons are in weird places, the controls are hard to get to, the control to turn the camera on is hard for anyone with nails to use, the look through lens always shows white no matter how you try to get it to work so you always need to use the digital viewfinder, the tape recording is grainy, the camera refuses to let you use the anti-shake feature even when you're in camera mode, you can't use anything related to Memory Stick Duo or Pro EVEN IF you can find and get an adapter (which limits you to the original "Memory Stick" 256MB cards ~ 30 min. if you can find them because they are pretty much obsolete), the memory stick formatting feature doesn't work, the software doesn't work with the tape in the camera when you try to access it from a computer, common video editing software will not detect the tape inside of the camera, sound is hard to pick up because the microphone is on the top of the camera, the USB streaming feature results in jumpy/grainy video that is not recognized by sites like myspace or utube, and it loses battery life quickly.

My advice: Buy something else that you can actually hook up to a computer. Who honestly uses tapes if they want to make home movies to burn to a CD or DVD? WAY more frustration and money than it is worth.

I am extremely displeased with the life of this product. I shot about 20 hours of footage with it and it no longer works. Don't buy this camcorder.