Customer Reviews

Hitachi DZGX5020A DVD Camcorder with 30x Optical Zoom

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

 

 

I am 13 and I got this camera as a gift. it is awesome and is compatable with many disks including maxwell disks and Sony Handycam disks (those are the ones I use.)
Shoots pretty well indoors.
No manual reading required, but I did so to find out the features.
It also can take pictures and capture photos from a video.
I recommend Hitachi Camcorder Accessory Kit 2 for Hitachi DVD Camcorders. The bag fits the camera, batteries, disks, cords, and the manual nicely. I bought this because of the battery (a couple of hours life). Plus you get 3 Maxwell DVD-R disks (disk cases included)

Overall, this is a great buy for beginners AND pros.

I have the GX5020 and have found it to shoot good footage both inside and outdoors. The quality of the camera is good with intuitive controls, no manual reading required!

The only shortfall is the battery provided does not last more than around 40 minutes, so a long life battery is a wise investment.

Small, quick and easy to use! I love the ability to save a picture to an SD card from any frame. We bought digital frames for the grandma's this Christmas and I was able to save pictures from the camcorder directly to the SD cards for use with their frames - I didn't need the camera at all. And I have the best pictures because I was able to pick the perfect frame to make a picture! That perfect smile that I would have missed with my 2 second delay camera - I got it this year using the camcorder. There was no learning process and it is very user friendly. The only downside so far is that the lenscap doesn't stay secure when clipped on and I tend to zoom way too fast! This is my first camcorder and I am very pleased.

Camera is easy to use. Light camera; fits easily in the palm of my hand. Works well in dim light. Good value for the money.

The 5020A is a first timer camera that is going to make home videos of the usual travels, family outings and such. It's actually fairly easy to use and you can use a variety of recordable mini-dvd's. I use the regular DVD-R which are the least expensive and allow the least editing in the camera, but that's me.

SPECIAL NOTE: As mentioned in previous review
DON"T LOSE the battery charger and cord that comes with this camcorder. The camera must be hooked up to a wall plug using the charger converter to run the camera in order to "finalize" the disc so you may view it.

In daylight and bright light the picture is reasonably good but not spectacular, it does not deal with low light very well at all, so indoors or at night you will probably need some type of external and fairly strong light source to record a decent picture. (My Sony 8mm had much better low light capabilities.)

It will on occasion have "disc errors" during recording, you can have the camera rewrite the disc to correct but it is best done if using the wall plug. I segway to another fresh disc when this happens and do corrections at home later. Seen it most with HP brand discs.

For better picture compositions get a wide angle lens/converter as it has a narrow field of view.

It's pretty convenient but definately will frustrate a seasoned videographer. So for the money it's ok, but I doubt I'd select this one again. I will upgrade next time.

Has trouble with disc formating and playback in general, not to mention the quirky steps needed to "finalize" a dics to be played elswhere or transfered to your computer you need a special cord, which plugs into your battery charger of all things, and then from the charger into the wall. If you loose that cord like I have - you're screwed, you can't any movies out of the camera - the discs won't play in any dvd player and you are just SOL.

I was in need of a DVD based camcorder and with most camcorders on the market today being flash memory or HDD based it came down to this unit or the Sony Handycam. The price was better on this unit with similar features to the Sony. The unit appears to be a refurb'ed unit. It functions fine, but the battery will not hold a charge for more than 10 min. Now I have to locate and purchase another battery. Other than that it is easy to use and the picture quality is good.

Fantastic Product!
It takes fantastic pictures and does not easily create shaky images.
All you need is a simple DVD ripping software and you can upload directly to youtube.

The quality is superior to most HDD camcorders out there and well worth the purchase.
Very pleased!

Battery life is horrible! Formatting discs are a nuisance. Very disappointed!
Beware before buying!

Have had this camera for over 2 years. Takes great pictures if you use the best quality setting. The only problem there is that, at least with the disks I have, there are only 19 minutes per disk at this quality. This has not been a major problem as we use it mostly for vacation video and we do short clips anyhow. The disks that I have are re-writable, so we have used them over and over. After many rewrites the camera can be somewhat fussy about re-formatting them. But we have used the same 12 or so disks for the last 2+ years and and only 3 of them have bit the dust the rest are still recording great video. We love that we can record 16:9 and with that setting fill our whole 40" TV screen with stunning video. It has a great zoom and we have been able to capture great pictures of wildlife at a distance. We love the color view finder and that we have the option to use this in bright sunlight. It is small, but lage enough to be able to hold and reach controls easily without undue shaking picture trying to get to zoom or stopping recording. Captures sound well. We have not checked into the settings well so it may be user error, but it does not do as great in low light. We like the digital recording. The recorded disks, if finalized, can be played directly back on some DVD players.