The VP-D371Wi is Samsung's entry point to the world of consumer camcorders, although it does¬n't look like a value part. On the contrary, the matte finish looks very classy in comparison to the glossy finish on the VP-D975Wi PAL-and if Samsung deliberately intended matte on the VP¬0371 Wi to look cheaper than a glossy finish, they failedErgonomics are identical to the VP-D975Wi PAL. Inter¬estingly, the VP-D371Wi misses out on SO memory expan¬sion, which means any photos you take are saved directly to the tape drive, which isn't a good thing. There is no audio-out; you'll need to make do with an AV-out and a FireWire port, the latter being mainly for PC connectivity, of course.





Despite its value orientation, the image sen¬sor at 0.8 megapixels and the 34x optical zoom onboard won't really give its pricing away. While shooting indoors, we immediately noticed the lack of clarity, especially in improperly-lit areas (when we played back the output on our test PC). Sure, the VP-D975Wi wasn't that great either, but the price difference is noteworthy if we're talking about performance. The VP-D371Wi also has focusing issues; we found we couldn't focus on closer objects (up to 12 feet) when using more than 15x optical zoom. At the longer end of the zoom, we couldn't prevent jitter from entering the recording no matter how hard we tried; in fact, jitter became noticeable at around 25x, and by 30x, you won't feel like zooming in further. There's also a lot of noise present, and we noticed a slight yellowish cast under fluorescent lighting.

The VP-D371Wi is damn cheap. However, compromising on price invariably com¬promises on quality as well-in this case, quali¬ty of output. If you consider that the Samsung VP-D371Wi is in a price league of its own and if your wallet is severely constrained then go buy it!. If you had a larger budget to begin with, don't change your mind looking here.

Specifications:
1 / 6-inch (CD image sensor (0.8 megapixel);
LCD viewfinder 2.7-inches (112,000 pixels);
Weight: 1.05 kg.