These cameras are great for taking snapshots at parties, weddings, and while on vacation. Mark Montgomery is Videomaker’s technical editor.Instant cameras allow us to take pictures and then view and share prints instantly (well, in about a minute). If you’re looking for two for the price of one, you’ve found your cam.
High resolution pictures are a reality with a maximum resolution of 2592 pixels by 1944 pixels. The still imager on the other hand is a rock solid still camera. While warming up the image is not so good, shooting slightly under normal exposure can actually make sure that your shots are safe from being blown out too much. Also the camcorder tends to warm colors and slightly underexpose shots. In our lab test, the auto white balance shifted between cool and warm, depending on the scene and subject.
Additionally, the camcorder comes with two Ulead software titles Photo Express SE and Video Studio SE DVD (Windows only).
There’s FireWire, USB 2.0, S-Video and the typical RCA connectors to give you plenty of options depending on how you want to view or edit your videos and photos. With all these different types of recording formats there is equally many ways to bring this information out of the camcorder. The Duo Cam will take SD, MMC and Memory Stick (Standard and Pro) memory cards for its stills. Primarily for video, the camcorder will record onto mini DV tapes, but you can also record MPEG-4 video onto memory cards using the still imager. With two cameras stuck together as one, the SC-D6550 offers a variety of recording formats. The image stabilizer performs well, removing shakes and jitter even at the long end of the zoom. As far as video is concerned the zoom seemingly has only two speeds, which is rather limiting. The SC-D6550 features a 10x and 3x optical zoom for video and stills, respectively. This awkward positioning takes a little getting used to and, fortunately, it is the only issue with the controls and their accessibility. It is easier to use the zoom rocker with your middle finger rather than the index finger. It fits nicely onto your hand, although the zoom rocker seems unnaturally too far down the camcorder. While having two different lenses might seem overwhelming, the camcorder is still relatively light and compact. Additionally, each lens has its separate imager and the still imager weighs in at a whopping 5.25 Mega Pixels.
One lens takes stills, while the other is responsible for capturing full frame, mini DV video. Double Takeīy far the most interesting feature of this camcorder is its defining double lens system. This dynamic duo will surely please amateur shooters looking to have the benefits of both worlds in one complete system. The Samsung Duo Cam SC-D6550 is certainly a one of a kind camera that unites a still camera and a mini DV video camcorder.