I purchased this camera in Singapore last May and I paid $1100. I compaired this camera to literally hundreds. If you have ever been to Singapore you would know its the electronics super center of SE Asia. This camera didnt simply out perform other models like JVC, Sony and Canon. It destroyed the competition. Night vision on this camera is fantastic compared to the long list of others I tried. This model is user friendly with easy to follow directions. The Samsung website has fabulous tutorials of how to work this camera too. This is selling for a way lower price than I paid. Its a steal at this price. Get the camera and you will know what I mean by performance. The guy that wrote the 2 star review.. he must be writing about a Sony.

This product is great. It's a DIGITAL video camcorder and is just so smartly designed (controls on the back within easy reach, remote control can snap onto/into the camera, etc), for the price of a poor analog camera with less features. Everyone I've talked about the camera is nothing less than enthusiastic about the quality and value for the money. It even has an effect (unfortunately called Make-Up mode) that will only highlight one color (like in "Schindler's List", as CNET noted).

I do have to say that I'm very creeped out by the "Ray Chan" negative review here, in which he copied negative reviews from the CNET boards, and then pasted them (all put together) as his own negative review here on the Amazon site. On CNET, he's known as the "Sony freak", because he goes to all the Samsung products and gives them bad reviews in really bad English, while pushing Sony products. He's managed to bypass the bad English here on Amazon by taking other people's reviews as his own. You can see the negative reviews he copied at: http://reviews.cnet.com/Samsung_SC_D590/4852-6500_7-9879939.html?tag=box
Creepy ...

I first purchased a Sony IP5 and was very disappointed. I hesitated to purchase the SCD590 due to some negative reviews... but I also felt that the reviews may have been staged. Anyway... I bought the camcorder... and we love it. QUALITY is GREAT... and that means picture, features, ease of use, and mechanical. We've had our SCD590 for about 3 months.

i got this cam about a week ago. so far so i am happy with this cam. actually, i did not expected this size, b/c i though much bigger, and even smaller than my hand. what is diferent b/t sonyand samsung. it looks same to me thru looking t,v.. and i do not know about the com, b/c it is going to be different story to how you capture thru com, (italk about pic quality)
ps i think there is different b/t sony or other japaness cam and samsung that is price, samsung is much much cheaper and i think same quality.

Pros: Thoughtful control layout; intuitive user interface; nifty Make-up mode; still image capture to Memory Stick; sharp LCD; optional VL-S1FL unit functions as both a video light and a flash.

Cons: Questionable quality control; bottom-loading cassette; no built-in flash for shooting stills.

Summary: I was sold on this camera for its size. I have tested the quality of the images against my larger Sony TRV-310. While the unit produced acceptable results I was disappointed in the color fidelity. Contrast to my Sony, the Samsung displayed muted colors lacking the depth and sharpness I have taken for granted. I must admit that the features are very good, but the image quality is not very good. Dim light shooting is not the best for this camcorder, unless you want to use night pix (greenish infrared light) The quality control is BAAAD, there were many things wrong with my camcorder when I got it, I had to send it back to the store for a refund. Price is great, but I'm now concerned about the Samsung company, continously failing over and over.