Hitachi DZMV350A MiniDVD Camcorder with 2.5" LCD and Digital Still Capability

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Manufacturer: Hitachi
Price at amazon.com: Used & new from $495.00

List price $899.99



Product Features:

• Records on DVD
• Up to 2 Hours of Recording
• Still Photo Mode Plus SD Card
• Advanced Stable Pix Electronic Image Stabilization
• 2.5" Color LCD panel

Product Description:

Average Customer Rating:

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Comment: Goodbye Hi8, Hello MiniDVD Rating:
My wife bought me this camera for Christmas. After experiencing video cameras for the better part of 2 decades (remember the gigantic, tv-camera-looking VHS cameras?!), I am elated that technology has come to this. So refreshingly simple, and so integral to one's peace-of-mind in knowing that the clips will endure until our sun burns-out (hope my descendants hang-on to my dear, recorded memories!). I find myself using the RAM disks more, since I can transfer the individual clips to my computer, and edit or arrange as I see fit; the -R disks are a 1-shot deal----what you tape is what you finalize at the end is what you watch on your DVD player. But even those are handy, if you want to simply move seamlessly from taking the disk out of the camera and straight into the DVD player. And even with the -R disks, you'll still get "menu chapter points" on the finished product---separated by each start and stop of the recording, and by date of the recording session. I find the quality great---even the "standard" quality (lowest setting) was great, when we recorded a gig that my band played at (low-light conditions and all). The RAM is great because you can record over and over and over---just buy 1 or 2 $20 disks, and if you transfer to computer, and thence to regular DVD disk, you don't need to buy too many additional. The only real problem has been stocking-up on some of these blank mini-disks----all the cold, unfriendly mega stores (circuit city, best buy, compUSA) always seem to be out, or low on supply. I resorted to ordering them from a company on-line.

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Comment: Good, but watch out! Rating:
A great camera with many wonderful features. The manual is chocked full of information, all except the most important feature: Format your disc before recording!!!! From the get-go with DVD-R, it prompted me to format the disc. But with DVD-Ram, It did not tell me to format the disc at the start. I took movies of my trip to Europe and was able to view them back through the finder/display. However, when I got to the end of the disc, I was prompted with a notice to "format the disc now" and that all video will be lost if I do format!! I couldn't believe I had to lose all my Europe footage all because I did not format the disc BEFORE I started recording. London Eye - gone! Meusse-Argonne Cemetary in France - gone! Hitachi could not help me. Again, great camera but Format first!!!

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Comment: i own it Rating:
this camcorder is phenominal. i was skeptical about buying something other than sony but i'm glad the hitachi salesman told me why this camera is better. let me explain.

sony dvd cameras are on there first generation (they are just coming to the market). This hitachi camera is a third generation model. this basically means that what consumers didnt like in the past has been implemented into the newer models. anyway, the price is a steal if you ask me. you can buy a digital camera for a few hundred bucks or you can spend a little more and get this wonderful toy.

okay now the nitty gritty. this camera can take pictures onto sd memory cars or onto dvd-r disc themselves. you can insert dvd-r media into this camera, record your movie, finalize it and then pop it into a dvd player to watch it all in a few minutes. talk about convient. you can also upload your movies to a PC and do special effects or whatever, then copy it back to the camera so you do not need a dvd burner on your computer!

The camera is very light weight and very portable. It is such a breeze to use. you can record a bunch of different shots and easily replay them on your camera. its like changing tracks on a cd player vs a tape player (other cameras) where you must fast foward or rewind to find the right scene. Its almost instant on this camera.

I bought this camera so i could take videos of my family and mail it back home to relatives so they can just pop it into there dvd players and enjoy! it does the above wonderfully. Keep in mind what you are getting when you buy this camcorder. You are getting THE LATEST in technology at an affordable price, it has a digital camera function (so to speak), dvd recording for very crisp pictures and sound, very small and portable for travelling and basically all the features you want in a camcorder. Did i mention it has a color view finder? This is very useful when trying to determine what to focus the camera on, if you arent using the color swivel screen of course.

i would recommend this camera to all of my friends, relatives and all of you! the picture quality is remarkable, dolby digital sound (awesome) and its just a great camera. Never again will i buy a sony camcorder while these are on the market :) dont waste your money on other crappy camcorders, get this!

Posted at October 11, 2003 01:24 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)