After spending several thousand dollars for a top of the line 8mm camcorder a decade ago only for it to become little more than junk today, I decided to buy only the cheapest camcorder that fulfilled my minimum needs. This Samsung SCD55 was it. The camera takes great amateur-grade video and is compact and lightweight enough to carry around on my hiking and climbing trips to boot. It's not as small and light as some other mini-DV models but doesn't cost as much either. The video lens is so-so and I bought a 0.6X wide-angle adapter for it. The video image quality is typically single-chip CCD quality with OK low light performance. My big caveat is that the included lithium battery lasts a marginally useful 20 minutes and the extra-life battery...runs just around 40 minutes - in that department I'm kind of jealous of friends who use the Sony Stamina battery based camcorders. For extended trips away from AC power to recharge the battery, I would NOT recommend this camera. Overall it's good value for the money and you won't cry too much a decade from now when it's obsolete.

Be sure to buy an extended warranty if you plan on buying this camera. Mine broke just a few days after the incredibly short 90 day labor warranty (1yr. on parts though). One day when I went to playback some video I had shot, nothing showed up other than a blue screen. It wouldn't playback anything after owning it less than 4 months. Other than that, the camera seems to perform okay, although the motors in the camera are quite a bit noisier than other camcorders I've used.

Be sure to do your homework before deciding to buy this camera. If you want a comparable camera get a panasonic dv51 which in similar in price. I'd stay away from this one....

I really like this camcorder. It was smaller than I expected which is a bonus. The picture quality is great, and unlike the other reviewer I found the indoor quality to be good despite my somewhat unlit apartment. It took me some time to figure our why the time and date stamp reset itself each time I turned it off. I soon realized that it had an internal lithium battery that had to be charged for 24 hours. Finally, the camcorder does not have all the special effects that I have seen on other camcorders, but I would not use them anyway. Essentially this camcorder is for those who dont want to pay for frills, but want a quality practical camcorder. Perfect for me!

I have studied for more than 2 months about ...digital camcorders and I finally found the one for me. That is SCD55.

It is very compact and rugged also. There are no more special features than really nescessary for beginners/intermediate users. It has 680 K pixel CCD, digital stabilization, 20x optical zoon and total 440x zoom (including digital), some special effects, photo mode to take digital pictures (though the resolution is not that good) and so on. Also connection to the PC with firewire (or i.link) is so easy that anyone can do that.

If I really have to mention the cons, the battery life is relatively short (50 min). However even this would be long enough for casual users for sure.

....I strongly recommend this product.

I'm afraid I had to send mine back because it didn't do well in low light. The owner's manual recommends a camcorder light for all indoor settings, and specifies that a light is required for anything darker than an office with fluorescent lights, or a room lit by fluorescent light. I found this to be true, and the camcorder would not work at all indoors unless there was plenty of light. Since I sometimes use my camcorder for museums and other indoor settings, it just wasn't appropriate for my needs. When I called the Samsung help line to make sure I wasn't just doing something wrong, they explained that this was just a limitation of this model.

Other than this limitation, it's a good product with lots of nice features for a great price. It was easy to hook up and run, and the sound was good. It's compact and solid-feeling. I gave it two stars based strictly on the fact I had to return mine because of the lighting needs.