Samsung VP DC171W > Reviews > Great camcorder by Samsung

Author's product rating:   

Ease of use	Excellent
Recording quality	Excellent
Picture quality	Good
Sound quality	Good
Value for money	Good

Advantages:	Compact/light - weight, good range of features
Disadvantages:	Many competitors

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

The Samsung VP DC171W is one of many camcorders released by Samsung, which records directly onto a DVD disk. Being a Samsung device you know you are going to get a great and compact camcorder for a good price.

With a width of 5.4 cm, a depth of 12.1 cm, a height of 8.7 cm and a weight of 360 g, you can see that you are getting a compact camera, which as a matter of fact is very light weight and in the process is portable. The sheer size of this camera makes it perfect for family days out or adventurous trips to places of natural beauty.

The camcorder sensor resolution is 800 kpix, this is basically the number of pixels the sensor can display on the provided screen. The display format is 112,000 pixels, which is also known as VGA quality and is less than 1 megapixel. This makes the camera perfect for lighted areas whereas areas which are in low light conditions may not provide a basis for good quality recording. Video is captured in widescreen, thus enhancing the video experience and making a home video look more professional.

The camcorder takes 4 different formats of DVD, these are: DVD-R (8cm), DVD-RW (8 cm), DVD+RW (8cm), DVD+R DL (8cm). These DVD's are much smaller than normal DVD disks and are designed specially for DVD recording camcorders.

Link to website where you can buy camcorder DVD's: http://www.jessops.com/Store/c3576/1-170-3576/Home/Camcorders/DVDs-for-Camc orders/details.aspx

The LCD display is a TFT active matrix and is 2.7" in size. The TFT stands for thin film transistors and these are basically tiny components arranged in a matrix (in columns and rows) to allow sufficient brightness levels to access each pixel to give you a high quality display output. The display includes the date as well as time and there is also a power saving option which reduces the brightness of the screen to save valuable battery life.

With the high quality display you get a 1200x digital zoom as well as an option of 34x optical zoom. Digital zoom is different to Optical zoom in the way it zooms into any particular thing. Digital zoom uses no lens movement just digital power to magnify a target, which in turn decreases the recording quality. Optical zoom involves the movement of the lens to magnify the image, which in turn has little or no effect on the picture quality.

The shooting modes include: Sand & snow, spotlight, portrait mode, hi-speed shutter, sports mode. When a particular mode is chosen the camcorder automatically adjusts focus, sensitivity and exposure to suit the scene which you are about to shoot.

The sand & snow option controls the light exposure of the white snow to give you a perfect light balance to allow recording of brightly lit areas such as sand & snow. The spotlight option focuses on the center of the shooting area and adjusts sensitivity and focus to give you a better view of the person or object in the spotlight. The high-speed shutter puts into use the integrated image stabilization to give you the ability to record great video whilst on the move. Finally the sports mode option gives you the option of recording fast moving objects, with the efficiency of a regular digital camcorder.

You can choose 3 possible recording speeds with this very camcorder. These are SP, LP and XP, these different recording speeds give you the option of recording more or less video content on a standard camcorder DVD disk. The SP recording speed is the lowest possible and will give you the option of recording more video content in a slower speed, thus increasing recording time and decreasing recording quality. The LP recording speed will provide less recording time than the SP mode, but a higher recording quality. And, finally the XP recording speed is the optimum and will give you the best possible recording speed and the least recording time of the 3 possible options.

You can opt to use special effects in your recording process. The special effects include: Negative, Art, Black & White, Sepia, Mosaic, Pastel, Mirror, Emboss. These effects can increase the value of a video but can also decrease the value if not used properly. You can also opt to adjust settings manually or choose to keep them on automatic. You can manually adjust exposure modes, white balance and focus.

The camcorders built-in microphone provides a standard stereo quality and also has a wind noise reduction ability, which by the name you can guess it takes away most of the noise created by wind.

Within the box you get an A/V (audio/video) cable to allow connections to external audio/video devices such as televisions or computer screens. You obviously get a charging cable as well as the required software. There is also an included lens cap and an included battery.

You can buy the Samsung VP DC171W for £139.99, from various online shops or you could opt to physically visit a shop and try to get a bargain. You will also always have the option of Ebay, where you may find a great deal. Most online shops will be selling this very camcorder for over £140, avoid these shops and go for the ones selling for £140 or less.

Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed my review of the Samsung VP DC171W.