Main reason I went in for one was because of the manufacturer - I had very good battery reliability and performance on all my Samsung equipment (Monitors, Tablets, phones, TV’s, SC-D27 Mini DV Camcorder from 2003 still working great). Hope this one stays on this trend.
I assume the battery is not replaceable by the consumer?
Bought one when it originally surfaced on woot. Overall great camera for an everyday take around. Never had a problem in the water, just make sure it dries fully before opening the panels. Beware of heavy exposure to sand/dirt. I have taken this camera to the beach a number of times and after a while the sand caused buttons to not function (I lost it in the ocean and found it 45 min later). It’s cheap enough, and durable enough…I am back in for 2 more.
correct - cannot access the battery. (Opening the case as it’s water tight isn’t easy)
hmm, if i order it today, will it arrive by friday? it would be great to use on trip starting on Sat. (im in atlanta, ga)
Thanks,that’s too bad. Still tempted but the 90 day warranty concerns me as well. I don’t see a Square Trade offer on this either.
I’ve got two of these. I’m a little bit of a fanatic with pocket camcorders (I’ve got about a dozen) and this is my favorite. Outside the videos are clear and bright. I like to use it for concert shoots. The sound is great, and while it’s not perfect, the lowlight is pretty damn good for a $40 camera. This was shot in fairly low light: Kelle Calco - Hot Child in the City - Brooklyn Bowl - July 19, 2012 - YouTube
I’ve had great luck with the one I Woot!'ed last time. Held up in the “Lazy River” at Atlantis (which is NOT all that “lazy” it turns out!). Took it snorkeling in salt water without any leakage. The sound capture does suffer if the microphone opening has water covering it but I guess that’s a matter of physics not really a fault of the device.
I’ve had great luck with battery life. The fact that it’s a non-user-replaceable battery hasn’t been an issue since it goes so long on a single charge.
For $40 you kinda can’t go wrong…
For the price, a great deal. Had one, paid over 100, returned it, got a Kodak for half the price. Now this one is less expensive than the Kodak and you can’t go wrong with Samsung. Tax, shipping and less then 50 bucks? You cant go wrong - in for one.
I bought one of these last time around. My power button became very hard to push until the point that I was unable to turn it off one day when I was using it. It also would get quite hot when in use. I called and talked to somebody for about a half-hour and they stated they would send an email to start the return for warranty process. It never came. I called again and got the same person on the phone. She had no record of my call. It did get worked out and I am using it again and the power button is working fine. I have used it for family things, concerts, fishing, etc. It also doesn’t get as hot as before.
In the specs it says it has 3x digital optical zoom. If it doesn’t have zoom that is the one thing that is keeping me from pulling the trigger. Can someone clarify if it does or does not have zoom capability?
Recording times from manual:
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and no to Optical zoom, but it does have 3x Digital zoom.
The specs say 3X digital zoom.
Digital zoom and opitcal zoom are two VERY different things.
On most normal cameras (not camcorders), the lens would extend, and you’d get as good of a picture zoomed in as you would not zoomed in. This is optical zoom.
On a camcorder like this, when you zoom in, you’re actually lowering the megapixels you’re capturing. So it’s equivalent to taking the picture with no zoom, then getting on your computer and zooming in on it. This is digital zoom.
This device only has digital zoom, which is less desirable.
Thank you!
There is a firmware update from 2011 on the Samsung site. Does anyone know if this one needs it?
Got this in a past offering from woot. It provided great video when we launched it up in a weather balloon package.
Very easy to use and good video made this a great purchase for what we used it for!
It doesn’t appear to come with an AC cable or USB cable, and all charging comes through the built in USB. I have a desktop iMac, and this seems like it would be a pain given the location of the USB ports on my machine. Anyone have an opinion on plugging into an iMac, both for power and transferring video?
I would second this warning. My wife and I took this to St. John with us snorkeling. The first couple days it worked ok. Then, in the middle of the week, water must have made its way into the device and it died. It never recovered. I would use this underwater as little as possible.
What? No flash? No light?
The more removable things you have, the more openings are needed and the more seals can fail.