Hitachi DZMV580A 1MP DVD Camcorder w/10x Optical Zoom (Discontinued by Manufacturer)

I 've been using this DVD camcorder for one month already, and it performs very well indoors and outdoors. The picture quality is poor but this is normal for 1MP CCD camera. Colors are very vivid and well distinguished. Using DVD-RAM is easy and so far without any writing/reading errors. The battery life corresponds to the specifications and goes up to 2 hours.I recommend this camera to everyone who prefers good quality/price.

I've had this camcorder for four months now. My wife and I were going to take our first vacation in a long while. We decided to go to the Smokey Mountains in Tennessee and I didn't want to forget this trip so we decided to buy a DVD camcorder.After researching numerous camcorders including Sony's and Panasonic's, I decided that the Hitachi would be the one. This Hitachi cam is very nice, compact. I have big hands and it is very easy to use, zoom in/out. All the buttons were placed logically where they would be most useful. It is very stylish, people tend to stare at it and ask about it when they see it. I have a new Kodak digital still camera and it is just a bit bigger than it, which is amazing. The optical zoom is excellent and the digital zoom isn't bad but it IS digital and it tends to be pixelated.I bought six 3" double-sided DVD-RAM disks, because I had a smart plan of never having to run out of space when I needed it. You have to use DVD-RAM to record in X-tra Fine mode and that's all I record in. I get about 17 minutes average recording time on each side the disks. My plan of having six RAM disks was because I never plan to buy any more mini 3" disks as RAM disks are rewritable and these disk won't hold more than an 30 minutes. I knew that all I had to do was record on to the mini disks, transfer them to my computer and combine as much as I can fit onto the larger, cheaper, more dvd player friendly DVD-R's.The review by marcjacal is mostly about the media, and is mostly incorrect, don't pay attention to it. The media works fine, I can play DVD-RAM's in my computer(I have a drive that reads DVD-RAM). You don't have to buy Maxell, it is just recommended. I bought some no name(Optodisk) disks for fairly cheap($10) and they work perfect. I even accidentally bought the square caddy kind, but it turned out better than I thought because now they are like holders for my disks on trips. I just take round disk out of the square caddy and put in the round caddy that came with the Hitachi.I have never used the still shot capability, as I have a 4 megapixel still camera for that. If you really want a still from the camcorder and are somewhat tech savvy you can just capture an image from the recorded "film". This will be better quality than a still from the cam if you use the X-tra Fine mode anyway.This camera has great sound, picks up everything. It does well in lowlight situations and as a previous reviewer stated the sunlight doesn't keep you from viewing the LCD. I use the LCD all the time and it's very cool. I bought a second battery(highly recommended) so it doesn't matter if it sucks the juice faster. It takes about 2 seconds to swap out the battery.All I have to say in conclusion is that this is an excellent DVD camcorder and I recommend it to anyone looking to jump into this market.

I bought the camera in January '05 for a trip abroad. Filmed 5 DVD-RAM disks over the following 3 weeks and absolutely loved the camera. The picture is very good, the sound sensitivity is excellent and the low light capability is fine. Definitely plan to have 2 batteries... this may even not be sufficient for several hours of intensive use.The problems arose when I came home and tried to edit the recordings... I ran into initial issues with the supplied software, so bought DVD editing and recording software to use in lieu of that which came with the camera.In short, the camera uses a USB cable to transfer video to the HDD, and ALL the software I tried is incompatible with this process. In all, I successively bought Easy Media Creator 7.0, Nero 6, MyDVD 6 and Sony... not one of which could I get to support my video transfer. And even worse, once installed, each of these packages then blocks your capability to use the originally provided editing software, as it then can't access the camera!Now, I have uninstalled all of the purchased software and have reconcilled myself to using the provided materials. It is certainly OK, but frustrating. Further, I never found any mention in the literature, on the support pages, or otherwise, of the incompatibality between camera and commercial software. In fact, some software specifically says it supports USB transfer, but only later do you discover the software only supports still picture transfer by USB... hardly of value with a video camera.So... the camera is really nice but plan to use the supplied software...

I don't know how many changes have been made in the manufacturing process from model 550. But buyer beware that with the digital media - there are often many errors - like there are when you write a music cd. These write errors cause the data to be lost - I went on vacation and only 4 of the 6 discs I brought were usable after because of random writing errors that occured pretty randomly.I would recommend waiting for this technology to get the kinks out or going with a different manufacter.

I was swayed by the promise of playing a burned DVD right out of camera. and now I wish I had stuck to my old analog Video (Hitachi) which never gave me any trouble.It's the DVDs that are full of errors. I went to Europe with this camera and out of 8 disks , 6 could not be read!! Worst still they can not be played straight on DVD.Do not waste your money on this, instead buy a cheaper miniDV camera.