Customer Reviews

Hitachi DZ-GX3300A 3.3MP DVD Camcorder with 10x Optical Zoom

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I bought this item as a gift for my husband. After 2 1/2 months, we thought we finally had it figured out. But just this evening, it erased the latest disc when my husband plugged it in to try and finalize it. It just displayed "Disc Access" for several minutes before shutting itself off. When he was finally able to get it to come back up, everything on it (our sons' track finals and talent show) was gone. I definitely would not recommend this product as it is too tempermental and difficult to use, not to mention the heartache caused by losing precious moments such as the ones we lost today.

After 4 months of light use the Hitachi DZ-GX3200A (a camera that appears to share many components with the 3300) it decided to start giving disk errors, resulting in the loss of all video of my daughters first birthday. It will format and start to use the disks, only to show a disk error sometime during the recording. I have be unable to recover ANY data from the disks after an error occurs.

I live in Houston, TX and the closest repair facility is about an 1.5 hour round trip. And because only parts are covered by the cheep-o warranty, it would cost me $75 in labor just to have an estimate done (applied to the cost of fixing it if I go forward). So now I have to decide: Is it worth driving 3 hours (drop off and pick up) and spending at least $75 to fix a camara that broke after just 4 months? Am I willing to trust it to film my daughters 2nd birthday? Guess I've got me a $400 paper weight, because I'll be buying another brand.

So far soo good. No issues with the camera. Outdoor shots are excelent quality. Indoor are average. Overall I am very happy with the quality.

This is a terrible product. You can barely film indoors because the lens limits wide angle filming. If you can't get at least 15 feet from your intented subject, you will be limited to filming their head. ALERT*** You can only use Maxell discs!!! Other disc might intially work, but will fail when you try to format them. This is not mentioned anywhere in the manual. Strangely enough Hitachi owns Mawell. Hmmmmmm???

This is my 2nd Hitachi camcorder. I had a lesser version from the same series (the only 1 that recorded video LESS than DVD quality!), which broke when I dropped it 3 feet, the day my son was born.
This one, however, has better video AND picture quality, and has been reliable since I've had it.
However, you have to read the manual, then read it again, then read it again. And then learn from experience all the things that aren't in the manual (some disks are untrustworthy, only buy name-brand batteries, some video modes are best avoided, it isn't always necessary to finalize, etc.)
I agree that the warranty is a joke, and these camcorders are not built to withstand anything less than the best handling.

It's a wonderful product to use, with excellent video and still picture quality. This product has been wrongly used, that's why previous reviews have shown that it damages DVD Disks, but the fact is that it doesn't.

Actually I was in the same impression when I used it for the first time using DVD +RW disks, but none of the disks worked in it. Then I studied the manual and found that +RW disks are not fully compatible with DVD Camcorders, so I used the DVD -R and bulls eye, it worked just perrrfect.

I'd recommend to use this camcorder as it is the best in it's category with excellent quality (3.3MP in DVD camorder !!!!) Go for it and enjoy your memories.....

This camera has only 90 days of warranty,Yes brand new and only 90 days.
After waiting months of browsing and research on what would be a good DVD Camcorder for our Family moments I have wrongly choose Hitachi because of the price and the nice feature of the 3.3 Mega Pixels...whatever.
It was my daughter's recital and I tape all the event but when I tried to take a picture and returned to camcorder mode the Access light was flashing and then the disc became corrup the the camera ask if you want to repair but ohhh surprise the disc became with no data like blank.
3 times happen and the I realize I need to call service and gues what it was only a day after the 90 days of warranty so If I want to get my camera inspected for any defect I'll need to pay 85 usd plus labor plus parts.
Don't choose wrong think twice.

It is great to burn movies directly to a DVD. Once you finalize the disc, just pop it in the DVD player and watch. Also, the picture mode with the removable SD ram card is very good (has integrated flash for still picutures which works very well). Just pop the SD ram in your reader, and download to PC.

One improvement is the indoor/low light capability for videos (which is why only 4 stars). Outside, you get incredibly crisp, good pictures. Inside, you simply don't. The camcorder simply needs more light in order to get sharp video pictures.

It's a very good camera, only question is operation in low light conditions. We are looking for an auxilliary light for this camera to overcome this problem.

I own a previous model Hitachi DVDCam. I have had several of my DVD's become corrupt and unreadable after I had recorded (and viewed) several videos on them. I called Hitachi and after a LONG phone call was basically told that I had bad luck and they were sorry. It is a porblem with the DVD itself and they do not stand behind the DVD's (because they are from a different manufacturer). My only option is to contact a data recovery service to get back my hours of lost video. Looks like that will cost me about $200-400 for two discs.
I understand that they do not make the DVD's, but their cameras use them. If I can record my videos on to them, I should be able to see those videos again. The only way to use their DVDCams are to record onto DVD's! Save your money and frustration and don't risk losing your precious family memories!

I purchased this Camcorder & found to be the best one. Customers looking for DVD Camcorders, your hunt ends here & pick this Camcorder & enjoy recording & taking photos.