Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)I've had this camcorder for four months now. My wife and I were going to take our first vacation in a long while.We decided to go to the Smokey Mountains in Tennessee and I didn't want to forget this trip so we decided to buy a DVD camcorder.
After researching numerous camcorders including Sony's and Panasonic's, I decided that the Hitachi would be the one.This Hitachi cam is very nice, compact.I have big hands and it is very easy to use, zoom in/out.All the buttons were placed logically where they would be most useful.It is very stylish, people tend to stare at it and ask about it when they see it.I have a new Kodak digital still camera and it is just a bit bigger than it, which is amazing.The optical zoom is excellent and the digital zoom isn't bad but it IS digital and it tends to be pixelated.
I bought six 3" double-sided DVD-RAM disks, because I had a smart plan of never having to run out of space when I needed it.You have to use DVD-RAM to record in X-tra Fine mode and that's all I record in.I get about 17 minutes average recording time on each side the disks.My plan of having six RAM disks was because I never plan to buy any more mini 3" disks as RAM disks are rewritable and these disk won't hold more than an 30 minutes.I knew that all I had to do was record on to the mini disks, transfer them to my computer and combine as much as I can fit onto the larger, cheaper, more dvd player friendly DVD-R's.
The review by marcjacal is mostly about the media, and is mostly incorrect, don't pay attention to it.The media works fine, I can play DVD-RAM's in my computer(I have a drive that reads DVD-RAM).You don't have to buy Maxell, it is just recommended.I bought some no name(Optodisk) disks for fairly cheap($10) and they work perfect.I even accidentally bought the square caddy kind, but it turned out better than I thought because now they are like holders for my disks on trips.I just take round disk out of the square caddy and put in the round caddy that came with the Hitachi.
I have never used the still shot capability, as I have a 4 megapixel still camera for that.If you really want a still from the camcorder and are somewhat tech savvy you can just capture an image from the recorded "film".This will be better quality than a still from the cam if you use the X-tra Fine mode anyway.
This camera has great sound, picks up everything. It does well in lowlight situations and as a previous reviewer stated the sunlight doesn't keep you from viewing the LCD.I use the LCD all the time and it's very cool.I bought a second battery(highly recommended) so it doesn't matter if it sucks the juice faster. It takes about 2 seconds to swap out the battery.
All I have to say in conclusion is that this is an excellent DVD camcorder and I recommend it to anyone looking to jump into this market.
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Product Description:
2/8/200615-19-32...
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