Samsung SC-DC164 Camcorder Review

Picture & Manual Control
Automatic Control (3.0)
The automatic controls on the SC-DC164 (Review, Specs, $249.95), which include exposure, shutter speed, focus, white balance, and more, were of pretty poor quality. By and large, the adjustments were too quick – jarring shifts from one exposure level or white balance setting to the next. Automatic focus is very bad, and tends to “breathe” (steady, rhythmic focus going in and out) except when focusing on distant objects. Combine this with the terrible video performance, and you’ve got a real dud on your hands.

Unlike most manufacturers, Samsung does not offer many automatic/manual hybrid controls – those one-touch type controls that make you feel like you’re part of the shooting process, while the camcorder is still making most of the decisions. They do include some Program AE modes for specific shooting situations. They include: Auto, Sports, Portrait, Spotlight, Sand/Snow, and High Speed. There is also a Back Light Compensation (BLC) which brightens the image overall to compensate for underexposed subjects standing in front of a strong backlight (i.e., a window or snow).

The camcorder has a low light performance enhancer, Color Nite, which is controlled via an external button in the LCD cavity. Color Nite slows the shutter speed to either 1/30th or 1/15th of a second. This is a digital effect, and can cause some serious image degradation like blurring.

There is a one-touch button to switch the camcorder into Easy Q mode, the “idiot proof” setting which essentially blocks the user from doing anything but turning the camcorder and video record on or off.

Overall Manual Control (6.0)
The overall manual control on the SC-DC164 is fair. Manual controls include shutter speed, exposure (in EV steps), focus, and white balance. While we liked the navigation on Samsung’s MiniDV camcorder, the SC-D365 (Review, Specs, $195.95), just a few modifications in design have made all the difference in handling the SC-DC164. Yes, the main menu has a clear and navigable layout. And yes, the abbreviated Quick Menu is also well-laid out and convenient. But while the D365 had rear-mounted Menu and Quick Menu buttons, and used the zoom toggle and shutter button as navigation tools, the DC164 has a poorly designed joystick on the left side. The Menu button is in the LCD cavity, but the Quick Menu button is above it. The layout makes no sense, and operation is a chore. You’ll find more detailed gripes in the Handling section below.

The Main Menu

The Camera sub-menu, part of the Main Menu

The Quick Menu, totally separate from the Main Menu, contains most of the manual controls.

The menus, seen here in animated gifs, are simple and effective. The main menu contains many of the manual controls and all of the date, time, and language controls settings. The Quick Menu contains all the manual controls that pertain to image quality: image stabilization, Program AE, white balance, Digital Effects, shutter speed, and exposure.

Almost every other manufacturer either gives you more controls, more effective controls, or better handling. Canon has more manual controls and a well-placed joystick. Panasonic offers aperture in f-stops and gain controls in dB. Sony has simpler handling, even though it is through the touch screen LCD.

Zoom (5.0)
The zoom on the DC164 is of very poor quality. While it is the raised toggle design we like to see, the toggle is thin and loose. It offers almost no resistance, so getting a tight control of the zoom speed is difficult. Like nearly all zoom toggles, it is pressure-sensitive, and gives you about three speeds of zoom. The toggle is well-placed for the forefinger, so you'll have no problen finding it in a pinch. There are no alternative zoom methods. Sony offers secondary zoom control buttons on the LCD panels of all their camcorders.

Zoom Power/Ratio (33.0)
The SC-DC164 offers an incredible 33x optical zoom, surely one of the few justifications for buying this camcorder. This is exactly one factor larger than the JVC entry-level MiniDV camcorders, which have a zoom of 32x. Zoom enthusiasts are a small but demanding market, ranging from ornithologists to private eyes to good old-fashioned perverts, and they may finally have their demands met.

The digital zoom extends to a maximum of 1200x. Our savvy readers know, of course, that digital zooming degrades image quality exponentially, and that coming even close to 1200x would result in nothing more than a jumble of blown-up pixels. If 33x optical is not doing the job, though, you can go into the menu and cap the digital zoom at 100x, 200x, 400x, and 1200x.

Focus (6.5)
The manual focus is not great, which is a shame, as the automatic control is not very good either. The control is engaged via a button labeled “MF/AF” in the LCD cavity. Then the + and – buttons (also the volume buttons) are used to make adjustments. There is one major benefit to the Samsung’s manual focus system – unlike every other manufacturer of consumer camcorders, the DC164 has a scale that appears along the right hand side of the screen tell you where in the focus range you are.

Exposure (Aperture) (4.0)
The exposure control is located in the Quick Menu. The scale of control is quite large – thirty increments in EV steps – which gives you a lot of room to explore for the correct exposure. The question is, of course, what are these increments representing? These are not full EV stops. These are thirty increments, 00 to 29, of some kind of EV values. It’s a good, wide range, but will not satisfy real manual control enthusiasts. There is no direct aperture control, as you'll see on Panasonics. Due to the poor placement and handling of the joystick, accessing the exposure is less than ideal - not nearly as good as Panasonic and Canon, but right on par with Sony, whose controls tend to be buried in the touchscreen menu.

Shutter Speed (3.0)
Shutter speed control is located in the Quick Menu, and includes options for 1/60, 1/100, 1/250, 1/500, 1/1000, 1/2000, 1/4000, and 1/10000 of a seconds. Getting to the controls is not fun, given the less-than-delightful, out of sight joystick. The actual range of controls is pretty good, although Panasonic gives you more range. Most Canons do not go quite as fast; the DC100 (Review, Specs, $305.1) has maximum shutter speed of 1/2000, but has a lower minimum shutter speed of 1/8. Sony gives you no shutter speed control at all.

White Balance (7.0)
The SC-DC164’s white balance controls are in both the Quick Menu and Main Menu. The presets include Auto, Indoor, and Outdoor, which is  sparse for a consumer camcorder. Most offer at least one extra indoor setting for lighting types – either fluorescent or incandescent – or a few outdoor options. There is also a full manual setting, called Custom WB. Making the adjustment is a little vague. Normally, there is some kind of blinking icon that stops when the balance is set. This is normally accompanied by a noticeable shift in the look of the picture as white balance sets. None of that happens here. You push the button, the icon blinks once, and it’s pretty much the same looking image as it was before. This is either a testament to the accuracy of the automatic white balance or an indication of the poor quality of the manual white balance. Our inclination is that the answer lies somewhere in between.

Gain (0.0)
There is no manual gain control on the SC-DC164. Only Panasonic gives you full control over the gain, in dB increments. JVC allows you to turn the auto gain on and off.

Other Manual Control (0.0)
There is no other manual control on the SC-DC164.