» Samsung NV24HD 10.1MP Digital Camera with 3.6x Optical Ultra Wide Image Stabilization Zoom (Black)

Samsung NV24HD 10.1MP Digital Camera with 3.6x Optical Ultra Wide Image Stabilization Zoom (Black) Reviews

Customer Rating:
Summary: PRODUCT OVERRATED
Comment: THIS PRODUCT IS OVERRATED!
WHY?
THE HD VIDEO OPTION (WHICH WAS THE MAIN REASON FOR ME TO BUY THIS CAMERA) IS A JOKE! NOT WORTH THE INVESTMENT; I AM NOT HAPPY WITH THIS PRODUCT AT ALL. I WISH AMAZON WOULD HAVE DONE THEIR DUE DILIGENCE WORK ON THIS PRODUCT BEFORE CONVINCING ME THAT IT'S WHAT I WAS LOOKING FOR.

I DO NOT INTEND TO DO ANY MORE BUSINESS WITH AMAZON DUE TO THIS REASON.

AS A MATTER OF FACT, AMAZON SHOULD STEP UP TO WHAT THEY CALL "100% CUSTOMER SATISFACTION" PROGRAM AND COMPENSATE ME FOR MY DISSATISFACTION.

THANK YOU.

THABITJUBRAN@YAHOO.COM

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Defective Camera, Lame Service
Comment: Bought a Samsung NV24HD digital camera from Amazon on May 24, 2008. When I tried to register it online, I'd get a message that it wasn't a valid serial number. I didn't give that much thought, thinking perhaps they hadn't caught up with their production. Today is July 17, 2008 and they still haven't caught up.
I have found the camera difficult to set, difficult to use, and I've been unable to download pictures from the SD card unless I put the card in my Canon camera which works fine. I loaded the Samsung Master software into two PCs running Windows Vista. Neither computer recognized the camera. After an hour on the Samsung tech line it was agreed the camera is defective. When I asked for an address where to send it, I was asked for the serial number. I read it off and they told me it is not a valid serial number. Upon speaking to a higher up it was finally admitted the camera was manufactured in April of this year, "but we probably haven't caught up.
Amazon refused to give me a full refund. They did tell me I could return the camera and I'd receive a partial refund. How much? I asked. That's up to the return department after they inspect the camera. Under those terms they could return me $25 bucks on a $300+ camera.
If I send it to Samsung for repair I will not actually be sending it to Samsung. While SONY maintains its own repair facilities, Samsung hires it out to someone on 6th Avenue in NYC. Would I buy another Samsung product? I don't think so.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Great Video Features
Comment: I'm a professional videographer and I think this is a really special item. I bought it for the HD video features. I was able to edit the video on Premiere Pro CS3. I've only had it for a day, but I put it through a few tests. I was surprised by how good the video quality is, and the colors looked great. The sound was surprisingly good (nothing special, but much better than expected). I think the wide angle lens on it is also very good. It's obviously not a professional video camera, but I can imagine using it for very low profile shooting and to capture video when I'm out and don't want to carry a camera with me. I can also imagine using it in situations where a very small light weight camera would be essential. I haven't put it through enough test to decide if I would ever use any of the footage on one of my projects, but it might fit a niche in a project that my larger video cameras can't fill. I really like that it has a wide angle lens, and anyone buying this should realize that you are not going to get much of a zoom out of this thing. My only wish is that it shot in 24p.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Outstanding camera, especially for the price!
Comment: This camera is absolutely wonderful. After shopping around and looking at cameras for what seemed like forever, I finally found this little wonder. Now people may be hesitant, as to the Samsung brand, I was too, but I am in love with this camera. The price tag of only $250 was great as it is probably one of the cheapest HD cameras you can buy (from a reputable brand), and its image quality simply rocks. I must say that I am a more advanced user who was looking around for manual controls to make my images pop, and this camera's manual mode does just that. You can control virtually everything (minus some very complex things like manual focus, but you really don't need control over those in a little point and shoot.

The camera takes excellent quality videos in the HD mode (be forewarned that you may need a beast of a computer though to play back the movies smoothly). Also people have been complaining about average image quality from this camera and I see nothing of the sort. Colors are vivid and can be mad more or less so by changing effects either before or after taking the picture. One smart feature that Samsung included was the fact that the camera is so speedy with its smart touch interface that it gives a quick update of filters and effects when you roll your fingers over the button. This is great when you want to take pictures in oddly lit situations and you need to quickly find out what looks the best for your photo.

One thing I was really worried about was the pop-up flash on the top of the camera. Moving parts scare me as they tend to break easily and when I looked at the little brother to the camera, the NV15, I saw that the flash didn't really close all of the way after being played with. This flash however feels solid and like it will always close all of the way and will always open promptly with the half push of the shutter button. Not to mention this flash is POWERFUL, it can light up a whole room, not like it's a Canon Speedlite, or anything, but this is by far the best flash in a Point and Shoot I have ever seen.

The smile mode is a hilarious feature, people get so surprised when you just hold the camera and when they smile, it just snaps away. Also, the red-eye reduction is a great feature and just edits away red-eye, unfortunately it can't do pet-eye.

Now of course there must be some downsides to the camera. The first camera received from amazon was defective, a whirring noise always came from the lens when it was at the widest zoom. Samsung confirmed this problem and promptly offered to fix it, I was satisfied with their prompt response (although I was unhappy to speak with Raj in India about how removing the battery might fix my problem, do they not think that I would have tried that???) Anyways I returned it and a new one was at my house the next day (way to go Amazon!) This one being without the whirr. I have a complaint about the whole zoom and loose sound thing, I think I could live with motor noise in my video, and even if I didn't like it, you can edit out the video. Another thing to mention is that the software that comes with the NV24HD is flat out weak. It is a photo sorter and basic editor. Basically iPhoto or whatever the windows version of iPhoto is. The last complaint I have is that the camera has no dock. Honestly a little plastic dock would not cost that much and would make me feel better about charging my camera so I wouldn't have to rest it on its brilliant screen or the nice Schnider lens.

Even with my little quips about the camera, I have to say that for the price I would rather have this camera any day over a Nikon Coolpix or a Canon Powershot.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Video is great, still shots need improvement
Comment: Let me begin by saying I am not one of those camera heads that does a tremendous amount of research before buying a camera and then tests the new camera, out trying each setting so I can do my own detailed review. I am by no means any kind of expert. The main reason we bought this camera is that we wanted the HD video functionality it offers.

I think the camera delivers nicely on the videos BUT I am disappointed to see that we can't purchase the cradle that allows you to hook directly to your HD TV to watch your videos. Here I am ready to throw some money at Samsung and they don't even offer it, so I wait. But I do love the videos and the fact that they use the H.264 codec so the quality is great, & file sizes of videos are handled efficiently.

On to the rest of the functionality. Love the smart buttons, gives you the feel of a touch screen without touching the screen. Love the wide angle as well. However, the last 3 cameras we have purchased were Canon PowerShots and they have always had very good picture quality all the way around in my opinion. When taking pictures indoors during the day for instance we have had several pictures turn out blurry. With the flash on at night also some less than perfect shots. Comparing them to the only other type of camera that we've ever owned, the Samsung falls short a bit. The only other beef I have with it is the software that comes with (Samsung Master). When downloading pictures you are not given many options like deleting the files once they've been downloaded, etc. Again comparing to the software that comes with Canon which seems much more thought out (probably because Canon has been doing it longer).

Overall though, we are satisfied with our purchase and look forward to using it (and for that CRADLE to come out!).

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