Hitachi DZ-MV350A DVD-CAM Camcorder (Hitachi-DZMV350A)

Reviewed by: otwiz

Strengths: Good picture despite mediocre resolution, small and lightwieght, excellent features.

Weaknesses: Long initial disc access time, decreased availability of DVD-R and DVD-RAM media, mediocre performance in low light.

Overall: All in all a good first effort at a DVD media camcorder. An excellent deal given the asking price relative to other models in this class, like the similarly equipped Sony models. It's ability to take still photos will not have you throwing away your old digital cameras yet. Although the ability to capture photos to either the DVD or a memory card is a nice feature. The battery lasts a good long time. Additionally, the DVD media makes uploading via cable unecessary since you can just copy it to computer via a DVD drive. However, Hitachi still included a USB connection to do so anyway. I haven't tried it yet, but it doesn't sound efficient to transfer via USB, especially when the video standard with miniDV has been Firewire since it's inception. I would recommend this camcorder to any early adopters to new technology or even if you are just plain sick of copying to PC to edit DV. Otherwise, wait until the price drops closer to miniDV cameras before you choke up the change.