Samsung SC-DC164 Camcorder Review

Still Features (3.75)
Still features on the SC-DC164 (Review, Specs, $249.95) are rather limited, but given the performance, that’s no great loss. It captures stills to SD, MMC, and MemoryStick (not the smaller MemoryStick Duo) cards; you cannot capture stills to DVDs. Cards are inserted into the bottom of the body, making it impossible to load when it’s on a tripod. The still size is fixed at 800 x 600, with quality options of Normal, Fine, and Super Fine. Why they would bother with three quality settings of a picture so small is a bit perplexing, but there you have it.

The Main Menu is largely the same, but the number of manual controls is significantly reduced from the video mode. Normally, they carry over directly. On the DC164, you lose Program AE modes, digital effects, 16:9 mode, image stabilization and shutter speed. You retain, however, manual focus, white balance, exposure, and backlight compensation.

There are few special features here which seem to be an attempt to market this as a hybrid. The camcorder offers PictBridge compatibility with select printers, but there is no flash, and… who are we kidding? A 0.48 megapixel image is never going to come close to replacing a dedicated still camera, which even the lowest end model can shoot at 8 times the quality.

While in video playback, you do have the option of transferring images that you like to the flash memory cards as stills, simply by pushing the still shutter button.

Still Resolution (0.7)
The Samsung SC-DC164’s stills were tested for resolution by shooting a standard ISO 12233 resolution chart and running those stills through Imatest imaging software. At its best, the camcorder produced a resolution of 73148.468. As the chart below shows, this was a poor performance, even by entry-level standard.

Still Performance (1.75)
The stills on the SC-DC164 may be slightly larger than the average entry-level DVD camcorder (800 x 600 versus the average 640 x 480), but those extra pixels are not put to good use. The image quality is absolutely terrible. I know we say this a lot about camcorder stills, and it’s the truth, but these are particularly bad – not the bottom of the barrel, but underneath the barrel.

There is virtually no color in the DC164’s stills. It looks as though it was shot at low light, rather than 3000 lux, though that was not the case. It has only slightly more fine detail than it did in video mode. The whole image lacks focus, as well, though we assure you that this was the best of the bunch from testing. Between the lack of color, the lack of detail, and the poor focus, you should never take a photo with this camcorder.

Comparatively, the Sony DCR-DVD105 produced a good deal more color, though these stills were certainly flawed in their own way. Noise levels were terrible, and tended to make subject outlines fuzzy. It could not capture any more fine detail than the Samsung. The DVD205, the next Sony model up, captures stills as large as 1152 x 864. It’s stills are, naturally, much sharper and of a higher resolution. Color reproduction was terrible, with no balance at all. The yellows and greens were high, and there was almost no red to speak of. However, this too was marginally preferable to the Samsung. At least there are colors to play with in Photoshop. It doesn’t seem that there is much to be done with the Samsung’s stills.

The Panasonic VDR-D100 does not even have the ability to capture stills, but it’s near-entry-level MiniDV camcorder, the PV-GS39 (Review, Specs, $212.8), does. The GS39’s 640 x 480 stills were very noisy, but had far more color – not good, just more color, and having to choose between them is like picking between two rotten apples. Finally, the Canon DC100 shoots at 1024 x 768. The Canon’s stills are of a much higher resolution, and were the best looking of any of these camcorders – comparatively great color balance, a crisp image, and relatively low noise. Of course, none of these come close to a dedicated still camera, but if you absolutely must take a few stills with your camcorder, only the Canon would suffice.