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Hitachi Dz GX3300 Dvd CamcorderHitachi DZ-GX3300 DVD camcorder review
| Hitachi Camcorder Review The Hitachi DZ-GX3300 isn’t going to blow anyone away. It’s not going to get you revved up. It’s not going to have you rubbing your thighs with glee. Some things just don’t have that spark and unfortunately the GX3300 really isn’t the brightest firework in the box. But if you’re an amateur camera man who wants a camera that takes average pictures with a 10x optical zoom at a fairly reasonable price, then the Hitachi could be for you. However, let us point out at the start, if you’ve got a few pounds to spare and want something that could do more than the basics go for another model. | 
Ugly Duckling Compared To The JVC Everio. |
Design | There’s a bit of a identity crisis going on here. The DZ-GX3300 isn’t really small enough neatly pack away in your handbag, but at 4.8cm x 9.1 x 13.2 it is small enough to sit comfortably in your hand. The colour is a dirty grey that is finished off in a cheap plastic finish but feels sturdy enough. All the controls are easily located at the left side of the body. You’ve got a menu navigation and playback control as well as four buttons for disc navigation. Another five touch-sensitive buttons live behind the LCD allowing you to access all those regularly used functions like focus and white balance. The record button rests behind your thumb and the zoom is just above it. | | Setup/Installation | | In order to record you simply put in your DVD or SD card and you're ready to go. However it's not the easiest camera to use purely because the buttons are so close together. The menu is very lengthy too and lots of submenus rather than easy to use icons. | | Features | | One of the positives with this camera is that it accepts several formats of media including 8cm write-once DVD-R and rewriteable DVD-RW, DVD+RW and DVD-RAM. The camera packs a 2.7 inch TFT LCD monitor and there’s a 3.31 megapixel CCD sensor that records high quality MPEG2 as well as JPEG and audio. There is an SD multimedia card slot for storing photos which apparently the camera can store up to 1300 digital still images. There’s a widescreen recording of 16:9 and you can record up to 36 minutes on extra fine quality or 120 minutes on standard. And it supposedly takes one second for the quick start function to operate but we found it took a bit longer. The 10x optical zoom lens is one of the extra features on the camera including automatic and manual white-balance and exposure and a built in flash. Connection wise the camera has an AV input/output port, a microphone input and a mini-USB socket. | | Performance | | While it says it’s ready in a second it take a few more before you can start using the Hitachi DZ-GX3300, although it’s not long enough for you to go and make a cup of tea. The 10x optical zoom works well – there’s no jerkiness but instead what you get is a smooth move from close to far objects. The fact it’s not too ridged means you can vary from fast zooming to a leisurely one with ease. The image stabiliser helps keep a steady image too when you’re moving around with the camera and when you’re zooming in fast. However when you get close to the far range of the 10x optical zoom there was nothing that could stop the hand shake. The 2.7 inch LCD screen is fairly sharp but being a small screen you can’t always tell if the image is focused or not. For a camcorder the stills aren’t bad but then that’s not what you buy a camcorder for. The white balance works well even indoors. But the picture quality does deteriorate when you are shooting in low light. The result is something that is quite grainy. Even at high resolution the image could be a bit hazy and the colours while bright sometimes have that over exposed feel about them. Sound quality from the internal microphone isn’t bad and doesn’t pick up any noise from the machine itself. Battery life is fairly average. Hitachi say that it’s about two hours of batter life but you can expect it to be much less than that when you’re stopping, starting and zooming into your subjects. Transferring footage on to your computer is very complicated, even with their software, so unless you’re really keen on storing them on your PC we’d suggest just sticking to watching on a DVD player. | | What's In The Box? | | Camcorder, charger. | | Overall Opinion | If you ask Hitachi this, the Hitachi DZ-GX3300 is supposed to be one of the top cameras in their range. But unfortunately it’s more likely to find itself at best in the middle of an overall list.
The performance isn’t fantastic with average quality images and colour. And the use is difficult with a slow start and close up buttons. Unless you’re a fan of Hitachi there are better products out on the market. |
By Babita Wakelin |
Pros
+ Average battery life. Good zoom that doesn't jerk.
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Cons
- Average picture quality. Not easy to use. Complicated navigation system.
Ugly Design.
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Picture Quality 6/10
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Battery Life 7/10
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Setup Simplicity 5/10
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Build Quality 7/10
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Ease of Use 6/10
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Overall Rating
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By Babita Wakelin
14/7/2006
at 10:35:41am
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