From Emily Price,
Your Guide to Camcorders.
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I had the opportunity to work with a friend’s Samsung SC-D363 a few weeks ago. While it is not necessarily a camcorder for aspiring film makers, the Samsung SC-D363 is a decent camcorder for someone who is looking for an entry level digital camcorder, or a good camcorder for a child to use.

The Basics

The Samsung SC-D363 camcorder has a 30x optical zoom and 60x digital zoom which is pretty high for consumer grade digital camcorders. The SC-D363 records onto MiniDV tapes and connects to your computer or DVD recorder through firewire.

Video Quality

The camcorder operates on one CCD with 680K pixels. We were using this camcorder alongside a Canon digital (ZR400) and you could tell a noticeable difference in video quality from this camcorder and the Canon. The Samsung video was grainier and looked more like analog video than digital.

Special Features

The Samsung SC-D363 has a variety of special effects built in including pastel, mosaic, sepia, and negative.

The camcorder is very easy to operate, and can be set up to beep when recording is started and ended, making it easy for children and those who have trouble seeing to operate.

Built-In Digital Camera

The SC-D363 has a built in digital camera but does not come wth the required media card to operate it. Photos are saved onto the media card for easy download onto your computer using a USB cable. The photos on the camcorder are saved at 800 x 600 pixels which is large enough to look pretty good on your computer, but is not a size that you would want to use to make prints.