Reviewed by
Nebojsa , Intermediate

Price Paid
$659.00 at Future Shop

Summary
Had a long price battle with store. Bought it as a discontinued, floor model. Was lucky to get it for such a low price. Excellent camera. Has a lots of useful features. Came with 3 discs (two DVD-R and one DVD-RAM) and free computer software. Easy to operate. Very good resolution still photo.

Strengths
DVD recording. Can be used as a DVD burner. Easy to navigate sceenes. I use only DVD-RAM. Easy to organise scenes. Delete unwanted scenes without rewind. That is just awesome! Cannot overwrite any recorded scenes (unless you want to..) Very good still shot photo quality.

Weaknesses
Low light performance not very good. Very noisy DVD burner. When recording in a quite environment, DVD-burner noise can be heard. Still shots recording has a long delay. Do not use it as a digital camera...

Customer Service
All big stores suck most of the time. I had a good experience this time. They wanted to get rid of a camcorder, I wanted to buy it for a lowest possible price. We got a deal...

Reviewed by
John Fan , Expert , from WA

Price Paid
$1299.00 at Future Shop

Summary
This camera is great for me. I don't even need to read the manual to get it to work.
Simple and Easy. Only when I tried to connect it to the computer, I spend half an hour doing it right. After that, it is all good. Photos and videos are great. The biggest feature is it can be a DVD burner!

Strengths
High Pixel CCD
Big Color LCD
DVD burner
DVD recording

Weaknesses
A little too big for women's hands.

Reviewed by
bryan98 , Intermediate

Price Paid
$900.00 at Circuit City

Summary
Bought the camera in June 2002. Loved it
from the start. Compared to other camcorders this one is above par in all categories. To speed up transfer of files to my computer I picked up a hitachi 7500 dvd-rom drive for my computer online for $43, it reads in the DVD-RAM disk much faster than the USB connection. I have had great luck with Ulead's DVD Moviefactory software ($45)and burning my own compiled DVDs, be sure to get version 2.0 or higher because it has the DVD import feature. Burning full size DVDs with this software (or any other software for that matter) will require you update your PC to the latest equipment out there (a big hard drive and as much memory as you can afford if you plan to get serious).
Still pictures are fantastic for a camcorder (1.1 megapixels), and will do in a pinch when I do not have my digital camera with me.
I love the DVD-Rs, and have found a lot of uses for them. I recommend www.taperesources.com as a good place to pick them up (DVD-RAMs too). Note that when you are done recording to a DVD-R disk you have to finalize the disk before you can put it in a TV DVD console player, this process takes about 7 minutes.
Low light recording is not as good as I have seen in some tape camcorders on the market, but it is much better than any of my other previous camcorders (old VHS-C and a digital 8). I'm still shopping around for the DC light attachment, that should clear up that issue.

Strengths
DVD-RAM recording much easier and secure than tape.
thumbnail image menu lets you go directly to the clip of interest.
Really good resolution and format quality.
Good Still picture quality and a lot of space to store them on (2000 pictures on the DVD-RAM disk).
DVD-R can go direct to your TV DVD console unit.

Weaknesses
Low light performance could be better.
Availability of accessories is limiting.

Similar Products Used
older camcorders (Panasonic and a Zenith)

Customer Service
Haven't needed them yet.

Reviewed by
Jean , Casual

Price Paid
$1100.00 at Circuit City

Summary
I was about to buy a regular Camcorder, but when I saw this DVD cam I changed my mind (my last cam died because a tape get stucked). Saving in a DVD..mmm no friction... optical writing... lets see with DVD-RAM you have the following features: DVD-RAM (100,000 rewrite ratio), no need for rewind, direct access to the desired scene, copy, paste and cut functions... real time, higher resolution, Direct play DVD-ROM, download to a PC (It seams slow, but when you think of a gigabyte transfer to your PC from your Camcorder it's not that slow.) Compared with other camcorders, the video downloaded to the PC it's superb (with light).
The only thing I didn't like is the low light performance. You need a lot of light otherwise the compression algorithm MPEG thinks everything is a big black or gray square.
If you like to be in the edge of home video this is the toy, but be warned the VRO format is really new and you are going to have some troubles to extract or edit the video in the PC. VBO (For standard DVD, VRO Realtime DVD) If everything fails... try a software called FlasKMPEG (just change the extension from VRO to MPG and output with bbmpeg)

Strengths
Video saved in DVD. Hi resolution 720x480. Direct DVD-ROM Play, DVD-RAM (100,000 rewrite cicle), no friction just optical.

Weaknesses
Low light performance is poor.
The camcorder gets hot.
The VRO format is new so you have some troubles with the editing software

Similar Products Used
NON, Does not exist

Customer Service
The editing software should be included with the camcorder not sold apart.

Reviewed by
Vincent Martucci , Casual , from Wantagh, New York

Price Paid
$775.00 at Circuit City

Summary
The camera works fine and is great for a novice. You just have to read the manual 3 or 4 times for everything to sink in.The pictures are clear and crisp, but a little dark in low light.Make sure that you order the light attachment-cost about 160.00.The camera is great for copying Vhs tapes to dvd disk into your dvd player.I rate this camera overall a 4ona scale of 1 to 5.

Strengths
Good quality pictures if taken out side or in bright light.Good response from Hatachi concerning the cameras operation etc.Immediate showing of dvd contents once finalized on dvd-r disc to dvd player which last 30 minutes or so.Able to tape fro Vhs tape directly through camera to dvd to show on t.v.

Weaknesses
a few problems relate to the battery which only lasts 45 or so minutes. To solve this you have to purchase the double capacity Li-ion battery at about 285.00 which gives you an hour to an hour and a half operating time.Light is poor requiring more money to be spent on lighting adapter about 160.00. I havent got into the cables and program which must be purchased to see pics on your computer about 250.00. Its a great camera for those with unlimited resourses since it becomes very costly with needed accessories. I say those on a budget forget it and wait until prices drop ina year or two.