Customer Reviews

DXG DXG-595V 5.0 Megapixel High-Definition Ultra Digital Video Camera

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I am writing this review based on the price of around $200. Im sure a 600$ + hd video camera would be better in every way. Same as you cant complain your new Kia dosent have all the features or is not as nice as your friends new BWM.

Most other HD video cameras in the price range look like toys, with small 1 to 2" flip screens, mono sound that sounds bad, no optical zoom, the video quality is poor even at 720, colors washed out and just not worth messing with unless they are for your 10 year old to record his bicycle stunts.


I just got this camera and it seems very good for the price and is not built like a toy. Has a large 3" lcd, stereo sound, 5x optical zoom, latching SD card cover and uses common batteries. The colors look very accurate and bright, when played back on my 47" 1080 lcd tv, it looks very nice, everything is clear and sharp. The hand strap is adjustable and unlike my $500 JVC hard drive camera, this one adjusts big enough that my hand fits in it. Also unlike my more expensive JVC, you can close the screen and keep recording or keep the camera turned on. Even if its off you wont miss a shot, it power up and it ready to record in about 2 seconds. Besides white balance and night mode I dont think there are other manual control settings that would you find on a more expensive camera.

I have seen reviews on this camera with people saying the video playback on their computer is terrible, studders, the sound is out of sync or the picture is blocky. First, if you are going to play / edit HD video on your computer, read the box & website. They recommended a 3.0 ghz computer or faster. (To find out your speed, open your start menu and Right click on My Computer (or Computer) and select properties, it will say on that page 3.0ghz, 2.2 Ghz, etc)... If your computer is slower than that or has low end video hardware you may not be able to watch 1080p movies on your computer. You can play them back directly from the camera to your tv. That computer playback issue is not a fault of this video camera and HD videos from any camera would be the same. You can however, use any speed computer for simply storing your videos or resizing them for youtube, email, etc. Just expect it will take your computer some time to convert the movies.

The camera does have standard composite out that will work on any tv with a single yellow video input plug, so no computer is required to watch movies. It also comes with a composite cable( 3 connector) that will plug into most HDTV's and you can watch your HD video right off the camera.

I purchased a 2nd battery when I bought the camera, it uses the same as a Fuji NP-120 and a good quality battery can be bought for under $20. The battery is suppose to last 1.5 - 2 hours and the charger is a 2 hour charger, so with 2 batteries should be able to keep recording forever if you have the charger with you. You can also get car chargers for this battery type for around $20 if you want to take a road trip.

For the technical parts: The audio records AAC 2 channel at 128k. 1440x1080p (HD) records around 8000-10000k, 1280x720p (HD) 4000-5000k, 848x480p (about the same size as a standard DVD) 2500-3500k and if you want to email or send a video right to youtube or myspace it records 320x240 at about 500-550k.

It officially supports SD and SDHC cards to 8GB, although some users said they have used larger cards on message boards. I would recommend testing them before recording anything important if you are tiring a larger card that officially supported. You are limited to a file size of just under 4GB per single video, this is the limit of the file system used on the SDHC cards and effects all card based video cameras. That works out to 50-60 minutes of continuous recording at 1080p & over 2 hours at 720p, you only need to stop for a seconds, then you can start again and keep doing that until your card is full.


I have only had one issue with this camera. The way it comes from the factory is the sound level comes down when zooming, so it dosent pick up the zoom motors, but you loose a few seconds of sound. The option is to use a slower zoom speed then the audio does not cut out. You can goto the dxgusa web site and download this update if you want it.

The directions were kind of unclear, to get it to work, 1. Take an empty SD card and put it in a card reader, format it for FAT32, 2. download the firmware from the website and extract or open the file, 3. drag or copy the file named like dvh596.bin to the empty card 4. Put the card in the camera, flip the mode switch to SET & press DISP & then ZOOM in at the same time, select FV VERSION, press enter (the joystick IN) and it should then update the camera. When it says Finished, you will have to turn the camera off and restart it.

Since updating the camera the zoom is slightly slower but the sound stays steady and you still do not hear any noises when zooming in / out.

In short, if you are expecting studio quality video, you should be looking at a studio quality camera, they start around $3000 and to shoot Hollywood movies expend to spend about $20,000, besides lenses, memory & battery backs, etc.... If you want a camera that looks much better than a mini-DVD camera or and is easier to hold than a digital camera shooting video, then here you go.

Follow-up:

Now Ive had the camera for maybe 1 1/2 to 2 years there are a few problems Ive found. One is it does poorly in low light conditions (mainly with bad lighting indoors) everything tends to turn red or disappear altogether. You can turn on Night Mode and it makes everything brighter but movement appears in slow motion and blurred. Also at times it can not seem to focus correctly and continuously focuses slightly in and out, most noticeably in low light, close up (6-10 feet) and on tripod or other fixed position. When moving the camera around or in bright conditions its does not have that problem or is not noticeable.

I had resigned myself to having to spend $600 or so to get a camera to record HD video with my son. When I saw the DXG for about $200 (I got it for $199 at B&H) I thought I'd give it a try (the reviews elsewhere are better than here).

If you go in expecting flawless 3CCD quality 1080p video from this camera, then move along, the key is value for the dollar. My one criticism is that the anti-shake feature is not available in 1080p mode, effectively making 1080p a tripod-only affair. However, in 780p mode the camera shoots very good video, even in low light (it gets grainy in near-darkness, but that seems typical). The video is Mac-compatible and is stored in h.264 mpeg-4 files which play right off the SD card in quicktime and are importable into iMovie HD. Each clip you shoot is stored as a separate file, which makes editing easier, as some clips can get thrown out before the editor is fired up and the clips are imported.

I found this camcorder really fun to shoot with. it is very light, and about the size of three iPods taped together. The camera I got did not come with an SD card, fortunately I had extra cards from my digital camera. I found that you can tape over an hour of video on a 2GB card in 720p mode. I have thrown the camera in my laptop bag and hauled it with me to all sorts of places and it is still going strong.

If you want a simple HD camcorder that shoots good 720p video at an incredible price, this is the unit for you.

I am an Amateur visual effects artist and I work with a lot of different applications. One thing that is crucial to me is motion tracking. I've been using a 10 year old Sony Handycam for a long time to shoot test shots for special effects, and while it's been enough for doing the job, I really needed something higher quality.

The DXG 595v sounds really good on paper; 1080p, 5 megapixel shots, really cheap. But unfortunately, it's got a couple flaws that make it unusable for my needs. Video quality wasn't that important to me, after all I was using a 10 year old 480i optical camcorder.

#1 flaw was optical distortion. Since there is no motion compensation when shooting in 1080p, the slow sensor filmed distorted images that differ between each frame (short, stretched, skewed, etc). This made motion capture impossible. If you plan on using a tripod, then it might work fine, but that beats the purpose of motion tracking.

#2, the average bitrate at 1080p was about 1.7 MBps (MegaBytes), which is about 1/4 of the standard 1080p and 1/2 standard bitrate for 720p. Daylight shots are fine, but anything indoors will immediately be very grainy.

#3, the widest angle possible on this camcorder makes it very difficult to work in close quarters. Even in a 24x18 foot room, I had to squeeze against the wall in order to get full character shots. My handycam was 35mm wide angle, this is more close to 47mm.

For a lot of people this camera might work, I wasn't expecting much, but I was expecting something slightly more usable than my Handycam. Build quality was better than I expected, and the features were enough to hold my interest until I shot some video.

Be advised that this is a TOY. Not even close to amateur level, and no where near professional level. For that price I would look for a great digital camera that also did 720p, than a really cheap camcorder.

COMPANY: Some reviews of DXGUSA products mention that DXG is a United States company. In some of the advertisements for DXG you might even notice a California location. DXG does maintain an office in "City of Industry" California, however, according to the DXGUSA web site their products are manufactured in Taiwan, ROC (Republic of China). It is a common practice for overseas companies to have a local US office and add the suffix "USA" to its name, however, the consumer should understand that buying DXG is not supporting the red, white and blue.

Contributing to any country of origin confusion is DXG's executive board. Most people who would communicate with DXGUSA would do so through the sales, marketing or customer service departments. There you will find persons of responsibility with the names of Goldberg, delRosario and Castillo, respectively, which lends to an American image. Digging slightly deeper you'll find that those company executives with positions of major authority have Asian names. Some Japanese and Chinese companies have been known to send their own executives to the U.S. in order to run the company as if it were in their home country. Others may use U.S. addresses while company executives remain overseas. It's unknown if DXG is participating in either of these practices.

PRODUCT:

THE GOOD - [Price] The DXG 595V is the cheapest flash memory camcorder in the High Definition market. Wal-Mart offers this camera at a price of $180.00 with free shipping if ship-to-store is selected. Unfortunately, however, a Wal-Mart order for this camera took several weeks to leave the warehouse and was eventually lost in shipment. Amazon with its price tag for the camera of $202.00 delivered to your door is the next lowest on the net. Delivery via free Super-Saver shipping with UPS arrived two days ahead of schedule to the East coast.

[Size] The DXG 595V is just about palm-sized and is very light weight thanks to its all plastic construction and few moving parts. The style of the camera is also more conventional than most of the low-cost camcorders available today.

[Recording] If your desire is to capture some family moments and events in a digital format that looks almost as good as those large VHS tapes you used to use then the DXG in a standard definition mode is the right camera. Video and sound was very fluid while recording stationary objects as well as moving in a vehicle. The camera handled low light conditions well, though the image did become somewhat grainy, and the LED light is some help at close distance.

[Simplicity] The 595V sports few features and, therefore, is ideal for those who are not interested in a learning curve prior to using it. The integrated manual lens cover is a nice idea and circumvents the old problem of a lens cap dangling during the action. All controls are easily accessible.

THE BAD: - [Battery Life] The DXG battery, (NP-120), is said to provide 1.5 hours of recording time. The originally supplied camera possessed a defect which would report a charged battery as depleted and shut down the camera. A replacement camera did much better though the loose-fitting battery may have caused a spurious "low battery" report as well. Batteries are important because it is not possible to use an AC wall adapter to supply power to this camera. So you may want to purchase extra batteries because a full charge could take up to three hours.

[Surface] Some online reviews of this camera have complained about the smooth surface displaying finger smudges. You should keep a soft towel with you if this is an OCB for you but it shouldn't be a deciding factor in your purchase.

[High Def Recording] Once you set the recording mode above the WVGA standard definition format you're recording video that is reminiscent of an old silent movie unless specifically designed for HD software and monitors are used. The popular Roxio 10 video editing software will not work well with the DXG's .mov video format, whether high def or standard.

[Bundled Software] The DXG 595V comes with two software CDs. Although one CD is labeled as "Arcsoft Total Media Extreme" a user will realize after installing it that this is not a full product. Total Media Extreme is comprised of about five main features. DXG's version of the software package consists of only two. According to Arcsoft, any package not containing all components is a "lite" version. This fact is not noted on the disc, the camera's literature or packaging.

[Memory] Although the DXG 595V has internal memory it is not user available. The internal memory is reserved for settings so you must purchase an SD style flash card prior to use.

[Documentation] Poor. That's about as detailed as DXGUSA gets in their own description of the 595V's features. Some of the documentation is also misleading such as references to the camera's microphone which are listed in two different places on the camera in two different guides or the wrong item circled in an illustration. Directions for updating the camera's firmware are no different. The instruction, "press the negative of enter button," is practically cryptic.

THE UGLY: [Warranty] DXG's written warranty that comes with the camera states that, "This warranty covers all parts and labor for one (1) year from the date of purchase." However, it later states, "Not covered: flashes, cords and cables, batteries, power adapter, digital media, software, LCD, lens and additional accessories, other expenses or consequential damages." So, the camera is covered under the warranty but the camera parts are not.

[Customer Service] The DXGUSA customer service web site is less than helpful. Some self-help pages lead to blank pages while others have only three suggestions - none of which even pertained to the 595V. An email to DXG customer service complaining of a battery problem resulted in the following response:

"We apologize for the set back. Unfortunately, our warranty does not cover accessories."

DXG considers the included battery to be an accessory along with the camera's lens and LCD screen.

Although this response was sent from the email address of Carlos Castillo, Director of Customer Relations for DXG, the sender's name was posted as Chad Meza. The message was also stamped at five hours time difference from US Eastern Time. A trace of the IP address the message was sent from, (207.210.80.162), reveals that the server being used was located in Atlanta, Georgia, but the DXGUSA message appears to have originated from Jalandhar, PU India.

After responding to DXG's first reply Chad Meza sent another response, this time addressed from himself rather than Mr. Castillo, which stated:

"I apologize for any inconvenience, however, an accessory is anything that is not physically attached to the camera."

This response was particularly puzzling since the LCD and lens which were specifically not warranted by DXG are "attached to the camera."

RECOMMENDATION: This reviewer could only test the standard video performance of the product so the HD qualities are unknown. The standard video performance, however, is probably the best of any digital camcorder in the $200.00 price range. If good quality digital video at under $210.00 is what you've been searching for - and you're willing to gamble on product defects - then the DXG 595V may fit your needs. It is suggested that you make your purchase through Amazon since their return policy is painless and their prices are usually the lowest available.

The reliability of the product, however, is unknown and should it fail, even under the warranty period, there is little or no support for the product. As DXG stated in a response to this reviewer:

"Once you purchased that product, you as a buyer take full responsibility and cannot later hold the manufacturer, vendor, or distributor accountable for the conditions of the product. "Buyer Beware" Is a phrase that we cannot emphasize enough."

According to the Better Business Bureau DXGUSA has had fifteen complaints against it in the last thirty-six months. Twelve of these complaints pertained to DXG agreeing to comply with their contract. The BBB does, however, give DXG a very good rating.

The camera works great. We had a problem in that the camera came with the wrong battery charger and getting the correct one was a bit of a challenge and took several weeks, I am hoping that I don't need any more help from their "customer service" department.

Great service in delivery. The camera is the best $250 camera possible. That's it. I was very disappointed with the stabilizer, but when on a tripod in a fixed position, this is a killer camera. Will have to eventually cough up and buy a true high definition camera. Did well with my Mac with no extra software needed!

I don't understand the objections some make about this little wonder. First of all the complaint that the zoom is only 5X puzzles me. Mine is 20X. I found the picture quality to be very good, and like most small cameras you have to use a tripod if you are addicted to zooming. I bought two extra batteries through Amazon for less about $17 including postage. I now can shoot for a couple of hours or more (wedding video)
Put it this way. If you want to shoot a professional documentary, for a two or three thousand you can get an acceptable unit. If, like my family, you want an all around camera inexpensive camera with excellent pictures (including stills...it also has its own flash!) then this is the camera for you.
It has most of the features of the (far) more expensive cameras and even comes with its own case and cables for TV, VCR or computer. It also has a built in light for low level light conditions!
One other thing. Several people complained that the playback on the computer was erratic. That is the fault of the computer not the camera. The camera comes with four different levels of resolution all the way up to 1080p. 1080p takes a lot of memory and a fast CPU. For slower computers use the lower resolutions. Same applies to attachment to e-mail.

The camera isn't bad for a normal video device but it's not worth 2 cents for HD. The focus isn't the best and the camera doesn't handle low light well either. In HD mode, the video undulates and moves in all directions when viewing. It can make one seasick. I sent an email asking about this problem and have never received a response.
If you are looking for a normal video camera, it's not bad. The single shot isn't bad either if outdoors and have enough light.
The monitor screen is very difficult to see outdoors so you may wind up guessing at where to aim for the shot. I've lost a video sequence because I couldn't tell if the unit was recording because I couldn't see the details on the screen. I hit the record button but ....

We bought this camcorder just before going on a "hiking vacation" in Southern Utah & the Grand Canyon North Rim. We hiked over 50 miles of the North Rim, Zion, Bryce & Red Canyon trails and returned home with over 24 GigaBytes of .MOV's & JPG's.
We had no idea as to what to expect, as to image quality on a 1080P Hi-Def TV, until after we returned home. Quite frankly, we didn't expect very much considering the very low price. We were amazed by the vivid, sharply detailed images that we saw displayed on our TV!

Some of the pluses:
It is very small & light weight and appears to be well-made.
It's very "user friendly" & the controls are all very conveniently located.
The battery is extremely small, so we bought a spare (for about $16) but we never had to use it, even on all-day hikes.
The SD-HC flash memory is very compact and inexpensive. Make sure that you buy Class 6 Hi-Speed! (the "Class" rating is located inside of the large "C" on the SD-HC label.) We bought (3) 8GB chips, (about $16 each) but never completely filled 1 chip during an entire day's hiking and off-loaded all of our files to our laptop each evening.
It appears that the "Zoom Noise Update" mentioned in C. Trent's revue has been incorporated in recent production units.

There are a few short-comings: (but what can you expect for $179?)
Only 5X optical zoom - not a problem when filming landscape scenes.
(Actually, we found that the detail was so sharp that we didn't need to zoom.)
It does have a rather small field - a wider angle lens might be needed for some uses.
No optical viewfinder - but many smaller camcorders omit this feature.
Image Stabilization isn't very effective in 1080P mode.


A few hints:
The best way to store and play Hi-Def movies from this (or any other)Hi-Def camcorder is to buy a "WD TV HD Media Player." (about $85 to $119) It connects to your Hi-Def TV with an HDMI cable and can connect to 1 or 2 USB hard drives, thumb drives or the Flash Memory chip from the camcorder (when installed in a USB adapter) and play Photos, AVI's, MOV's & many other formats. This is an awesome addition to any Hi-Def TV!
(Make sure that you update the WD TV firmware to the latest version to get rid of some of the glitches in the earlier versions and to make it compatible with additional media formats. A Western Digital support rep can help you do this.)
You can also connect the camcorder to your TV with component video cables for play-back.

Great little camera.. when it works...
Ive had this guy for about 8 mos now and its quickly turning into more of a pain to get to work correctly..

pros:
its HD.. Good picture/sound quality 1080p and stereo microphone)
20x "superzoom"- 5x optical zoom lens
video mode, still camera mode, and audio only mode
led light and a flash
various recording and picture modes.
lightweight
user friendly. easy to operate
playback function for instant review
SD chip compatible
tri-pod hookups

cons:
zooms when it wants to and not when you press the zoom button about a 45 second lag... then it will zoom.. so you never know how far it will zoom until it does.. and if it zoomed to much, you have to wait for it to zoom back out again after another 45 seconds or so...
records when it wants to.. (it doesnt care that your kid is on stage RIGHT NOW.. it will record when it feels like it. (it fails after recording 2-3 seconds and shuts off.)
Records video in quicktime format... who uses quicktime anymore? needs special programs to convert video for uploading to web.. ie:youtube...
the microphone is just above the hand strap (where your pinky should sit if holding correctly). so you get alot of noise from fingers running over mic.. poorly designed.

conclusion:
The various functions and attributes are meaningless if the camera doesn't do its basic function. I don't recommend this camera at all...