Hitachi DZ-GX3300A

Product Introduction:

Hitachi DZ-GX3300A is a wonderful Hitachi product with affordable cost. This camcorder has lot improved features compared to its previous version Hitachi DZ-GX20A.

Design and Features:

Hitachi DZ-GX3300A has a 2.5 inch LCD screen and 10x optical zoom. The design is somewhat bulky, dark grey in color and a bit hard to carry, but provides good grip while holding it. We have a zoom rocker button in front of photo capture button. We have the mode dial and record buttons placed where our thumbs rest.

On the left side we have a handful of controls. There are two sets of five way rockers one placed behind the LCD and one on the left top corner both used to navigate in between the menus. This camcorder has a 3.3-megapixel CCD sensor and it accepts all the four varieties of DVD’s like writable DVD’s, Read only DVD’s, DVD+RW and DVD-RAM. All the videos shot are in MPEG-2 format.

This camcorder has some attractive features like preprogrammed autoexposure modes, 10x optical zoom lens, automatic and manual white-balance plus exposure options and a lot of useful presets. The LCD screen itself acts a backlight when the light is so dim which is a common feature now a days in many cameras.

Specification:

Product Type: Camcorder

Digital Zoom: 500 x

Optical Sensor Type: CCD

Shooting Modes: Digital photo mode

Camera Flash: Built-in flash

Widescreen Video Capture: Yes

Camcorder Sensor Resolution: 3.3 megapixels

Color Support: Color

Still Image Format: JPEG

Supported Flash Memory: SD Memory Card

Image Storage: JPEG 2016 x 1512

Media Type: DVD-R (8cm), DVD+RW (8cm), DVD-RW (8 cm), DVD-RAM (8 cm)

Type: Zoom lens

Optical Zoom: 10 x

Lens system type: Zoom lens

Type:LCD display - TFT active matrix - 2.7 in - Color

Connector Type: 1 x Composite video/audio (input/output), 1 x S-Video input / output, 1 x USB, 1 x Accessory shoe

Expansion Slot(s) : 1 x SD Memory Card

Cables Included: 1 x A/V cable, 1 x USB cable

Supported Battery: 1 x Li-ion rechargeable battery - 1400 mAh (Included)

Display Form Factor: Rotating

Performance:

Transferring data from the camcorder to your computer could be done easily through placing the camcorders DVD on the computer directly. The video and audio qualities are fairly ok. The still images also look quite ok. The overall speed of the camcorder could be rated average. The startup time for the first photo is nearly 3 seconds. When image are shot continuously the speed is acceptable though not excellent.

The menu is easy to navigate and numerous inbuilt features give enough opportunity to edit the video taken. Autofocus and exposure features work surprisingly well and they could be controlled manually as well if necessary. The digital stabilization feature works well up to 7x zoom. If we go farther the images tend to shake a little bit.

In the still images or in videos we could not note any pixilation or noise. The quality is quite good. There is an enhanced microphone which records superior quality sound. A few touch sensitive buttons tend to be non responsive and though they are placed in a comfortable position for our fingers tend to work sluggishly.

The good:

Good quality video and still photography output, good in-camera editing features and affordable cost are its main highlights.

The bad:

The bulky design, non responsive touch sensitive buttons and hard to use, user interface, plus average battery life are its main disadvantages.

The bottom line:

Hitachi DZ-GX3300A is an inexpensive camcorder providing decent quality output even in dim light conditions. If you are ready to adjust with the heavy design there are ample attractive features in the camcorder.

Rating: 3 star rating ***

3 Stars (Good):

A product with 3 star rating has strengths that outweigh its weaknesses. Users should be aware that this product has some minor faults that should be taken into consideration.