Hitachi DVD Camcorder DZ MV550E

...comparison sites and found the Hitachi DZ MV550E at Dixons for the very reasonable price of £375 including delivery.

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In the Box
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Within the rather over sized box came:

* The Camcorder itself
* The re-chargeable battery
* An AC adapter/charger
* DC power cord
* Power cable
* Remote control and lithium battery
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...the complete specification from the Hitachi website at :
http://live.hitachidigitalmedia.com/http://ebizwebprod.hitachi-eu.com:84/NASApp/DMG/viewProduct_1.jsp?productid=351

I bought this camcorder from Dixons at the extremely low price of £375 including delivery, other on-line stores are selling it for anything upto £600.

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Final Words
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I would ... more

Being the proud owner of a DVD recorder with a hard drive, I felt that I would benefit from having a camcorder that recorded straight onto DVDs. Why, you might ask, would I want this? Well by recording straight onto a DVD I would be able to cut out a conversion in making my final DVDs.
With my last camcorder I had to play it into the recorder at real time, and the recording would go through a digital-analogue-digital conversion that would result in loss of quality. However, with a camcorder that records direct to DVD, I would be able to load it straight into the recorder, and "high speed dub", that is make a direct digital copy without any conversion, this should result in no loss of quality.

As this was my only real requirement, I checked out several price comparison sites and found the Hitachi DZ MV550E at Dixons for the very reasonable price of £375 including delivery.

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  In the Box
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Within the rather over sized box came:

• The Camcorder itself
• The re-chargeable battery
• An AC adapter/charger
• DC power cord
• Power cable
• Remote control and lithium battery
• AV/S output cable
• Shoulder Strap
• Lens Cap and string
• Single-sided 8ch DVD-RAM disc in holder
• PC connection cable
• 2 spare lens covers
• Software CD-ROM
• Instruction manuals in various languages.

I actually felt the the DVD-RAM disc was a nice touch as when I have previously bought camcorders the only thing preventing me from recording straight away is the lack of a tape.

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  The software
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As I had to wait for the battery to charge, I felt the only sensible thing to do was to check out the CD-ROM which featured the following :

*DVDCAM USB Driver*

This will allow your camera to be recognised by the computer.

*UDF Driver (DVD-RAM Driver)*

This will allow your computer to recognise the camcorder as a DVD-RAM drive.

*DVD-MovieAlbumSE 3*

This program allows you to edit the video directly on the DVD-RAM disc. Please note: any changes you make will be permanent.

*MyDVD 4.0*

A DVD authoring program, that will help you create a final DVD.

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  The camcorder
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The camcorder itself weighs in at a very reasonable 500g (without battery) which is almost half the weight of my previous camcorder.
And at 64mm x 89mm x 146mm, is pretty small and compact, without looking silly. It has a nice silver finish, and to make things even better you can change the lens casing to one of three colours, silver, matte silver or metallic blue.
So I will give it 10/10 for styling.

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  Recording
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There are three recording qualities available:Extra Fine - This allows 18mins per side of DVD-RAM (not available for DVD-R)
*This is brillant quality, maybe best for those extra special occasions.

Fine - This allows 30mins per side of DVD-RAM or DVD-R
*I personally could'nt see very much difference between this and standard (well maybe very slight)

Standard - This allows 60mins per side DVD-RAM or DVD-R
*A very acceptable quality for everyday recordings.You are also able to store upto 999 photos on a DVD, I forgot to say this camera also takes low resolution photos.

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  Battery Life
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The suppiled battery lasts for upto 145mins, which is a very reasonable amount of time if you ask me.

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  Ease of use
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All menus on the camcorder are accessed through a very nice joystick (much the same as you find on many phones). The layouts are very logical.The LCD screen is a nice size and very clear, so you can easily see what you are recording.Once you have set your recording quality use is as easy as point and your away.

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  Transfering your recordings
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As well as the standard methods of transferring through A/V cables you can turn the camcorder in a virtual DVD-RAM drive for your PC, how cool is that.After installing the software, you connect the camcorder via USB, and suddenly you have a new drive. The DVDMovieAlbum makes editing and transferring your film a breeze, and then with MYDVD you can create a finshed DVD without even breaking a sweat.

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  Further Info
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You can find more information including the complete specification from the Hitachi website at :
http://live.hitachidigitalmedia.com/http://ebizwebprod.hitachi-eu.com:84/NASApp/DMG/viewProduct_1.jsp?productid=351I bought this camcorder from Dixons at the extremely low price of £375 including delivery, other on-line stores are selling it for anything upto £600.

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  Final Words
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I would say this camcorder is aimed towards the computer user, who is perhaps already creating their own DVD's. As I fall into this category I am thrilled with this camcorder, which has made my life much easier.
Although originally bought to use with a DVD-recorder, computer use is so simple that I think I'll stick with that route.
If you're a computer user, that wants to make home videoing easier then this is the product for you. 

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