Features

• Accepts DVD-R and DVD-Ram formats
• 2.5 inch LCD monitor
• 16:9 widescreen recording
• 16x optical / 240x digital zoom
• Records directly to DVD

Features

• Analog to digital recording
• Records video and still images
• 2.1 megapixel CCD
• 16:9 recording mode for both DVD-RAM and DVD-Rdiscs
• 10x optical, 240x digital zoom

Features

• Analog to digital recording
• Records video and still images
• 1.3 megapixel CCD
• 16:9 recording mode for both DVD-RAM and DVD-R discs
• 10x optical, 240x digital zoom

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

Reviews (5)

Goodbye Hi8, Hello MiniDVD
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.

Good, but watch out!
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!!!

i own it
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!

+++convenient, +compact, nice video quality, ; -pricey
This is a GREAT digital camcorder: small, light, and fairly easy to use. Long battery life (about 2 hours record time). Yes, it is expensive. But after realizing I never would "get around to" transferring our tapes to DVDs on the computer, I couldn't resist the convenience of having our home movies automatically recorded on DVD media. Unless you have all the time and PC gear to transfer, edit and burn DVDs from a tape camcorder, the extra cost of this direct-to-DVD camcorder is WELL worth it.

We were happy to find that our 4-year old Sony DVD player has no problems playing back the finalized DVD-R disks. (Anyone who claims they can't view -R discs made with this camera on computers or DVD players is simply didn't read the manual!) The DVD-R disc has to be "finalized" before anything besides the camera can read it, unless you use the more expensive DVD-RW media (which can go from camera to PC w/o finalizing; our home player doesn't support DVD-RW media). Another drawback is you must be plugged into AC power to finalize a DVD-R; I guess this is a reliability issue, not a technical requirement. If your battery were to die in the middle of "finalizing", the disc would be toast. Better safe than sorry.

For playback on a home DVD player, it takes a few times to get used to removing the 3" disks from the plastic carriers they come in, but it's no big deal (you must remove the mini DVD disk from the carrier to put it in a player or PC drive). Also, you only get 30 minutes per disk in high quality mode, but the disks are so light and tiny you can have several blanks in your pocket for recording long events. One thing different from tape camcorders is when you first power on the camera. Depending on how much of the disk has already been used, the time it takes for the camera to be "ready" can be much longer than a tape camera. But the delays in start-up are more than offset by the ability to navigate thru a menu of thumbnail stills of each "scene" you already shot when doing playback on the camera - something you just can't do with tape camcorders. Unfortunately, the finalized disc navigation screens just have selections showing text bars with date the scene was shot - you don't get the nice thumbnail stills you saw in the camera's playback navigation screens. But it's still great pop the finalized disk in the home player, click and play the scene you want immediately w/o having to fast-forward like a tape. As for "still" picture quality, it's pretty mediocre, but I bought this for video (I already have a good still camera). Camera came with a PC transfer cable and software, but since I'm using DVD-R media, I don't really need it. Manual says you can use the cable and software to edit DVD-RW media, or burn from PC to the DVD drive in the camera. Not sure how important a feature this really is.

quality is bad
The movie quality is bad, but the photos that the camera prudes is more bad.
There is a problem with the color and saturation.
The camcorder is very convenes (DVD) but the camcorder is unreliable. My new camcorder has problems with the focus, after use of two weeks! ... Read more

Features

• 1-megapixel DVD Camcorder with DVD-R/DVD-RAM and SD/MMC memory card recording capability
• 10x optical zoom lens (digital zoom to 240x) and advanced stable image stabilization
• 2.5-inch rotating LCD and color viewfinder
• Capture MPEG-2 video or digital stills and transfer to your computer using high-speed USB 2.0
• Lithium-ion battery for up to 145 minutes of continuous recording time

Reviews (3)

Good alternative to mini-DV
I have had a mini-DV camcorder for a couple of years, but when a friend bought this DVD camcorder, I became jealous. I had left the mini-DV out in the sprinkler about a year ago, and it finally succomed to reclaimed water rot (actually quite a ringing endorsement for my old Canon ZR-10 that it could withstand that). This was my excuse to buy this camcorder.

The quality of the video is fine - but not quite as good as mini-DV. Also, I would like a wide-screen mode, like was available on the ZR-10. It is, however, immensely convenient to record to DVD-RAM. To me, it's worth the 20 fewer lines of resolution and the lossy compression of MPEG-2.

The battery only lasts about 1/2 hour, but I'm OK with that. If you shoot more than 1/2 hour at a clip, you're making boring movies, but it would be nice to have a bit more leeway.

I download the video to my hard drive and edit with Vegas Video - so haven't tried the in-camera editing and probably never will.

The software that ships with it has a definite Japanese accent, and it not all that fabulous. However, it is stable once you figure out the wierd menus and procedures.

I find that I must pay a bit more attention to the exposure modes than I did with my ZR-10. But if you set it for low light, it does a pretty good job in low light. Don't set it to "Sports" and shoot in incandenscent light. Trust me on this.

I have used both DVD-RAM and DVD-R. I prefer DVD-RAM, since it acts like a disk drive. In fact, you can connected it to your computer via USB 2.0 as a DVD-RAM drive. You can't drag and drop the movies, however. You need to transcode it with the included software.

It seems to be a bit finicky about media. It didn't like Sony DVD-R media, but works fine with Maxell.

I just bought a 256MB SD card which will hold over 1000 pictures at the 1 Mpx resolution. The photos are good enough for web and video, but not for printing. You can't record photos to DVD-R, but you can record them to DVD-RAM.

Overall a good camcorder, but don't throw away your Mini-DV if you want the highest picture quality availaible in consumer gear today.

Great hardware, horrible software
This camcorder is what many have waited for: consumer grade digital video without tape. The decision to use mainly DVD-R or DVD-RAM is best made early. For me, DVD-R is still too expensive to use. DVD-RAM allows reuse, as well as in-camera editing. But don't be fooled by this editing capability, this camera would be extremely frustrating without a computer for offline processing...

Which brings us to the bundled software. As a Mac user, and knowing that video is still very Mac-friendly, the Windows-only software was a grave disappointment. Even within the Windows environment, this software is still quite clumsy. The DVD-RAM disks require drivers to read (Included Windows drivers seem to work well). The video files are *.VRO, which is an MPEG-2 variant many decoders cannot parse, including QuickTime.

Still the bundled software allows rudimentary DVD editing and some degree of MPEG transcoding. For serious offline editing, you'll need an expensive suite of software and a good computer.

Despite its software limitations, this camera is an excellent device for capturing source material. Its three DVD-RAM resolution modes, STD/FINE/EXTRA provide a useful set of tradeoffs. Don't use the STD mode unless 60 minute continuity is essential. My 4 megapixel still camera means its unlikely I'll ever know how well the DZMV-380A operates in still mode.

In short, if you're serious about DVD content creation and have the computer tools and expertise, this camera is second to none. But the casual user will be disappointed at the expense of DVD-R disks and the complexity of using DVD-RAM.

A Five-Star camera bundled with Two-Star software. Four stars.

Great camcorder
I have had this model for a month now and am pleased with the performance. Recording with DVD-RAM is a snap and editing is just as easy. I have a ... Panasonic dvd player s-31 and I can plop the DVD-RAM directly from the camcorder into the dvd player and watch my movies and view my photos. My first generation JVC DVD player spits the disc out and swears at me in Japanese.

It comes with sonic MyDvd which makes pretty decent DVDs. It also comes with a program that can convert the camcorder files into Mpeg files. Once they are mpeg files you can use them in any decent video editing software. I usually edit the video files and then use Sonic to burn a DVD. I have not tried VCD and considering the poor quality of a VCD, I don't know why someone would want to.

As far as video quality, I used it to tape my daughter surfing and the quality was excellent. The optical zoom is great but the digital zoom pixilates heavily at anything higher than 40x. I have tested the different recording formats (std, fine and xtra) and I now only use the highest format as the other ones show up with scanning lines on my 40 inch TV. In auto mode it sucks at low light...until I manually set it to low light mode and everything showed up but had a brownish hue.

The media is still more expensive than DV tapes... At highest quality a single DVD-RAM holds a half an hour (15 min each side). I have not tried the DVD-R as I am having a hard time justifying spending [the money] to record to a disk and not be able to do any post editing. The discs are nice as each time I turn the record on and off it creates a small movie that is accessed much like a scene menu on a regular DVD. On a DVD-RAM, I can then edit it, add transition effects or I can delete it. No more rewinding tape. Let me write that again - no more rewinding tape. That has to be the nicest thing about this toy - no more tape.

It only has a USB connection - no fire wire. I am running XP and connection to the computer was a snap.

It takes 1 mega pixel photos which are the quality of, well, 1 mega pixel photos. I have an old 2.5 mega pixel Olympus that obviously blows it away but in a pinch it makes decent small pics.

Would I buy this again? Yes. So far the overall quality is on par with its peers and not having to muck with tape is a big benefit for me. It loses 1 star for the media recording length and price of the DVD discs. ... Read more

Amazon.com Review

The Hitachi H855LA offers a multitude of features for a Hi8 camcorder, including an automatic light, instant zoom, and special digital effects. Its button layout is intuitive, and large LCD screen makes it easy to use.

We found that the Hitachi H855LA was a snap to pick up and learn. It performed well in low light, giving a clear, detailed picture. In addition, you can set the H855LA's active light to come on in dimly lit scenes and turn off again in normal light, making it possible to shoot in near-darkness. The array of special effects are a blast to play with, both during recording and playback. This camcorder's digital fade feature is a great way to start or end segments.

The Hitachi H855LA features a high-powered 400x digital zoom, great for getting close-ups and recording faraway events. The H855LA's image-stabilization feature also makes recording more foolproof. Its small size and lightweight, durable construction make it easier to carry and use. This camcorder uses the Hi8 format, which produces sharp and colorful video--digital is the only format that will give you better quality. The only drawback to Hi8 is that you can't play the tapes in your VCR; you must connect the camcorder to your TV for playback. Playback on a TV was a snap using the included audio/video input cords.

Pros:

• Powerful zoom
• Lightweight and compact
• Large, bright LCD viewing screen
• Performs well in low light
• Provides wide range of digital effects

Cons:

• LCD screen must be open and power source must be connected to eject or insert tape

Features

• 3-inch active-matrix LCD screen, plus viewfinder
• Automatic active light for shooting in darkness
• 400x instant zoom
• Special recording and playback effects
• Picture stabilization

Reviews (1)

Excellent product! Have used for 6 months, and it's great!
Camera take exceptional pictures, has high quality in Hi8 mode. You can purchase long life batteries (>2500 MaH) that allow you to record for extremely long periods even using the LCD screen as your viewfinder. The image stabilization is very good, allowing videos to be hand held, but yielding a very stable picture. The internal lens cap feature is very nice, out of the way when shooting, yet nothing to lose. The resolution on the direct viewfinder is exceptional, and even though it is B/W it is very usable combined with the color LCD for playback. Having an internal viewfinder is extremely useful in bright light situations where the LCD is washed out/hard to see.

Overall an exceptional product, with a very good price. Has held up well in trips to Europe, Western USA, and New England, as well as for family gatherings. ... Read more

Features

• Analog to digital recording
• Records video and still images
• 680K pixel CCD
• 16:9 recording mode for both DVD-RAM and DVD-R discs
• 16x optical, 240x digital zoom

Amazon.com Product Description

Hitachi camcorder kit for Hitachi camcorders. This kit contains a camera bag, 3 DVD-R discs, and an additional battery. Prolong your shooting time and carry all your accessories together with this handy camcorder kit.

Compatible Models

• DZMV730A
• DZ-MV750A
• DZ-MV780A
• DZ-GX20A

Product Description

Small size and enhanced 4GB capacity permits you to carry an entire continent of maps or 1,000 songs in your pocket. Reliable storage for data, photos, music, and videos from digital cameras, PDAs, handheld PCs, MP3 digital audio players, laptops and other portable handheld devices Hitachi's new 4GB Microdrive is designed to the Compact Flash Type II industry standard and is compatible with a wide variety of devices that accept CF+ Type II media. The 4GB Microdrive is formatted at the factory using the FAT32 file system to remedy the 2GB limitation of the FAT16 file system. ... Read more

Features

• Store thousands of high-resolution images
• High speed means less delay between shots
• Weighs less that a roll of film
• Best choice for digital cameras
• Kit includes Hitachi 4gb microdrive retail packing, Pro card reader, & Opteka cleaning kit

Reviews (1)

Not for high altitude
Note that according to the manufacturer, these are only designed to work up to about 10,000 feet (3,000 meters). Above that they may fail- they need air to hold up the heads. ... Read more

Amazon.com Product Description

Save yourself both money and hassle with this refill kit from Dataproducts. Designed to work with most popular inkjet printers, this refill kit contains 139 ml of ink and contains four colors (cyan, magenta, yellow, and black). All the tools you need to refill your existing cartridge are included, as is a booklet of refill instructions to help you with your specific printer model. Dataproducts affirms that the specially formulated dye-based ink will not void your printer's warranty and is designed to provide bold, clean prints. ... Read more

Features

• Compatible with most inkjet printers
• 84 ml of ink
• Separate ink bottles
• Cyan, magenta, yellow, and black ink
• Refill tools included

Features

• Fully compatible cartridge that will not void your printer warranty
• Saves you up to 20% more vs OEM brand
• Specialty formulated inks to enhance your printer performance

Features

• Fully compatible cartridge that will not void your printer warranty
• Saves you up to 20% more vs OEM brand
• Specialty formulated inks to enhance your printer performance

Amazon.com Product Description

This Dataproducts black ink cartridge is fully compatible with the Epson T028201 and can save you money. It won't void your printer warranty and is specially formulated to provide quality results. Compatible printer models include Epson Stylus C60, Stylus C61, and the Epson Stylus C60 for the Compaq iPAQ Home Internet Appliance. ... Read more

Features

• Monochrome black replacement ink cartridge
• Compatible with Epson C60 and C61 printers
• Replaces Epson T028201 ink cartridge
• 20 ml ink volume
• 1-year limited warranty

Features

• Fully compatible cartridge that will not void your printer warranty
• Saves you up to 20% more vs OEM brand
• Specialty formulated inks to enhance your printer performance

Features

• Fully compatible cartridge that will not void your printer warranty
• Saves you up to 20% more vs OEM brand
• Specialty formulated inks to enhance your printer performance

Amazon.com Product Description

Save yourself both money and hassle with this refill kit from Dataproducts. Designed to work with most popular inkjet printers, this three-color (cyan, magenta, and yellow) refill kit contains 84 ml of ink and yields up to eight refills, depending upon your printer. All the tools you need to refill your existing cartridge are included, as is a booklet of refill instructions to help you with your specific printer model. Dataproducts affirms that the specially formulated dye-based ink will not void your printer's warranty and is designed to provide bold, clean prints. ... Read more

Features

• Compatible with most inkjet printers
• 84 ml of ink
• Yields up to 8 refills
• 3 colors of ink (cyan, magenta, and yellow)
• Refill tools included

Features

• Fully compatible cartridge that will not void your printer warranty
• Saves you up to 20% more vs OEM brand
• Specialty formulated inks to enhance your printer performance

Features

• Fully compatible cartridge that will not void your printer warranty
• Saves you up to 20% more vs OEM brand
• Specialty formulated inks to enhance your printer performance