Samsung SC-D453 Video Camera

It was just after Christmas in 2005 that I decided to spring for a MiniDV camera. I'd been shooting several projects in film school on MiniDV and after collecting a small collection of tapes I thought I would benefit from having a DVcam of my own.

There was nothing complicated about my choice. I picked this little Samsung because it was compact, no bigger than my hand, and it seemed ideal for traveling with. Truthfully, I didn't feel I needed a major quality upgrade so much as I needed a format upgrade to output my video to the new MiniDV standard.  For home video sake and after carrying around my Sony handycam in LA and Vegas, it was nice to have something a lot lighter.

The weaknesses of this camera are a result of it's small size.  There aren't a lot of extra features, although it does have an impressive 900x digital zoom. As a casual camera for Internet vlogs or home video, you really don't need much more.  This was 2005 though, and cameras like the Flip HD (which I now own) have made the market for this type of shooting a lot more competitive. 

The first thing I did with this camera was a project titled, A Chill in the Air in January 2006. It opened a lot of doors for me, and was actually directly involved in my next camera upgrade that spring. To this day I still use this camera for casual shooting and experiments. I took with me to Vegas again, and use it mainly to capture home videos. It's still a sleek, unassuming, and easy to use little piece of equipment.