MiniDV camcorder sales continue to slide, and Samsung has weighed in with a pair of DVD camcorders, the approximately $730 SC-DC564 and the approximately $597 SC-DC164. Both feature widescreen recording (though to all appearances only the SC-DC564 does true widescreen), MPEG-4 recording, Memory Stick/Memory Stick Pro/MMC/SD slots, USB 2.0, and PictBridge. Both also feature impressive optical zooms, though curiously the more expensive SC-DC564 only manages 26x, compared to the SC-DC164's 33x.
Both camcorders also record to dual-layer DVD; Aaron Novak, marketing manager for camcorders at Samsung Electronics America said, "Today's consumers don't have time to worry about which DVDs will function with their camcorders, so Samsung has worked to alleviate that concern." The thing is, the camcorder works with single-layer DVD-RW/-R/+RW/+R, but only DVD+R for dual layer. So, um, thanks for your concern, but we'll still have to stop and check the package before we head for the checkout line.
