Pros: Great Images, straight forward operation, very comfortable to use,direct to DVD recording
Cons: Software won't support mini DVD-R or combining two discs to one DVD on computer
The Bottom Line: Buy. DVD Quality is great. Cheaper than equivalent Panasonic V70 and better images than Hitachi 550A or Panasonic V50. Sony's out because must record stills to DVD. Software NG.
c4791p's Full Review: Hitachi DZ-MV580A DVD Camcorder
Getting ready for an eight day cruise to the Mexican Riviera to celebrate my wife's birthday, we decided our old camcorder had seen better days. Technology had passed us by. Way by!
I was taking our Sony digital camera and my Nikon F3 for serious shots, but movies were what we wanted most. So we spent about three weeks researching. With my wife selling real estate and having a lot of out of state investors, one feature that really caught our attention was the ability of DVD Camcorders to record direct to a DVD-R, which could then be closed (finalized) so it could be played on a home DVD player.
One thing I noted in all the reviews was that the camcorders tended to be fragile. For that reason, I decided to buy from a brick and mortar store and not via mail order even though I buy all sorts of electronic things on line. Best choice I ever made.
One day before joining our cruise we bought the Hitachi DZ-MV580A from Circuit City in Torrance CA. They didn't have any Maxell mini DVD-Rs in stock so we bought a box of 5 Memorex mini DVD-Rs, not realizing Hitachi and Panasonic push use of Maxell discs as much as they do.
As the manual instructed, I formatted all five discs and even charged the camera's built in battery (to keep the time and day clock running) -- In this day and age, whoever would think Hitachi and Panasonic would use a rechargable battery that takes a technician to change, instead of using a user replaceable lithium cell like everyone else?
On board the cruise I first recorded using the 30 minute DVD-Ram disk that accompanied the camera, I then moved on to one of the DVD-Rs I formatted before leaving home. Recorded about 25 minutes of Mexican countryside, peoples and churches, and then decided to move to my next disc so I didn't run out of space.
My camera wouldn't even accept the second Memorex disc, kept reporting disc errors, even though the camera just the day before reported the disc had been "initialized" just fine. The third and fourth Memorex discs worked great. The fifth reported the same errors as the second.
After the cruise, went back to Circuit City and they said the camera had to be bad because nobody else was reporting the same kind of errors. They replaced the camera under their no-questions-asked 14 day exchange plan and I took a 60 minute Maxell DVD-RAM disk as replacement for the mini DVD-Rs.
The second camera handled discs correctly, but demonstrated low light focus stability problems the first camera didn't have. Focus kept shifting in and out, even with the camera not moving and photographing a non-moving object. Once again Circuit City gave us a new camera, our third in 28 days.
Everything now seems to be great, but there is one caution I really, really need to pass along to everyone!
Do not, repeat DO NOT, finalize a DVD-R on the camera until after you capture the image on your computer using the supplied cables!
We lost two discs, one taken during the cruise and one my wife took of some investment property, that were perfectly viewable on the camera but when finalizing was attempted following all the instructions provided by Hitachi, the camera reported disk errors and now the disk isn't readable at all by the camera or in my computer and the data is trapped.
There has to be a hardware or firmware/software problem in the camera! But to date, I have no acknowledgement from Hitachi. The pictures the camera takes are truly great. But really watch out to protect your irreplacable images.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 684.00 Recommended for: Home and Families - Keep Memories of Family Vacations
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