Hitachi DZHS300A DVD Hybrid Camcorder with 25x Optical Zoom & 8GB Hard Disc Drive

Other products by Hitachi

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 12 x 8 x 10 inches ; 2.7 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B000LWY7A6
• Item model number: HS300A UltraVision
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (39 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #4,920 in Camera & Photo (See Bestsellers in Camera & Photo)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: January 8, 2007

Product Description

Manufacturer Description

Hitachi's innovative D7HS300A DVD Hybrid Camcorder lets you shoot and capture many hours of home movie memories directly to the built-in 8 GB hard drive without changing discs or tapes or running out of space. The critical last step to enjoying and sharing these memories is to transfer those movies from the Hard Drive to DVDs, and the Hitachi Hybrid products are the only camcorders in the world that allow consumers to record to Hard Drive then transfer to DVD right in the camcorder with the push of a button.

Hybrid models offer the flexible capacity of an internal hard drive ideal for vacations when you want to grab a lot of footage but not to carry DVD discs, or for recording long events where you plan to produce highlight reels from the footage. The internal hard drive also makes downloading footage to a computer for editing a snap as well as performing basic in-camera editing when no computer is available. The 1-Touch Easy Dubbing feature lets users quickly burn footage stored on the hard disk drive to DVD for playback on most home DVD players. Built to withstand the rigors of family outings, the Hitachi hybrid camcorders offer a unique drop-proofing system that automatically detect falls, suspends read/write activity and cushions the hard drive for impact.

D7HS300A Highlights

8 GB HDD and DVD hybrid Combining the convenience of the DVD format -- for easy sharing and archiving -- with the flexible capacity of an 8 GB internal Hard Disk Drive (HDD), the revolutionary design simplifies and speeds up the home-moviemaking process.

Easy dubbing Hybrid camcorders make creating the DVDs you want simple. Our 1-touch easy dubbing feature mean you can quickly burn entire movies saved on the HDD to DVD. Just press the button and the camcorder will do the rest. Alternatively, you can create your own director’s cut by selecting on the highlight scenes. It’s as easy as that.

Advanced drop-proofing Accidents happen. That’s why our Hybrid camcorders have their own (ESP) extra sensory protection drop-proofing system to protect the HDD. Their Zero G sensors automatically detect falls, suspending read/write activity and cushioning the hard drive for impact.

USB 2.0 connectivity USB 2.0 connection enables you to connect to your computer with high-speed data transfer and produce professional movies at home with supplied editing software.

Multiformat+ compatibility The Multiformat+ drive will burn DVD-R, DVD-RAM, DVD-RW and DVD+RW. So not only will DVDs play on your home DVD player, but they are also compatible with your friends’ and family’s players, too. In addition to DVD, SD cards can be used to store digital still photos.

True 16:9 widescreen Not only can Hitachi camcorders record in true 16:9 widescreen, but the on-board 2.7-inch widescreen LCD screen is true 16:9, too. It means that what you see is exactly what you’ll get -- no cropping, no compromise.

Cinema Res Cinema Res image processing ensures video and pictures always appear detailed and accurate. By reducing "noise" and increasing sharpness, your home movies will look better than ever.

Photo capture from DVD Why do people always blink in photographs? Fortunately, that’s now history with Hitachi camcorders. You can now select any frame from your movies and turn it into a digital still photograph. Simply save the photo to an SD card and then print or share by e-mail.

1-second quick start Life doesn’t wait to be filmed. That’s why Hitachi camcorders feature 1-second quick start from standby -- the fastest start-up time on the market. It means you need never worry about missing the moment again.

Included Accessories

• Battery
• AC adaptor/charger, DC power cord
• USB cable
• PC and Mac video editing software
• Special S-video and composite A/V cable
• Shoulder strap
• Lens cap

Product Description

Hitachi has combined the convenience of the DVD camcorder and the capacity of a hard disk drive. The result is the DZ-HS300, the very first camcorder that delivers the best of both worlds in a hybrid design that will make shooting, editing and sharing a whole new experience.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

72 of 74 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Just bought last week, February 15, 2007

By	M. R. Phillips "M Phillips" (Jacksonville FL) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I've only been playing with this camera for a week now but so far so good. It takes nice video and is very easy to use. Dubbed video directly from hard drive to disk without a problem. Disk played in my DVD player without a problem.

Love being able to just connect it to my PC with the USB cable and see the camera as a drive. Software that came with it is very basic movie editing, will probably rely on my other software that has more features.

I can see where I will rely primarily on the HDD and just use the DVD to make copies or backups. But it's nice to know that there is an option to use the disks if the HDD gets full while on vacation etc...

So far no complaints...

31 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Convenient value camcorder, March 19, 2007

By	Srinivasan P. Sankar "srini" (plano, tx) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Ideal camcorder for first-timers...make sure to carry a seperate digital camera as the still capability is nothing to talk about.

Easy to operate and convenient to make multiple copies on mini dvd. Included software is user friendly and can do all basic editing.

21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars No Video Editing?, October 12, 2007

By	Michael Robert Plichta (Naperville, IL) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This camcorder was purchased for a school so the students could learn how to video edit. While the videos taken with the camera play back ok, none of them will import into video editing software. We've tried Windows Movie Maker, EZ Media Creator 8 and 9, and an open source transcoder called Media Coder. All of these applications either crash, or produce garbled output when using files generated by this camera. This is true of both HD and mini-DVD footage. Hitachi's answer? If it plays back in windows media player and on dvd players, their job is done. If you just want to play back your raw footage, this camera might work for you. We are returning the camcorder...

Update- We found out that if you switch the camcorder to Wide Mode, it no longer has the broken video problems. We can now edit it using any video editing software. By "wide screen" I mean 720X480 mode, which really is still close to standard TV width and height. Look for it in the options menu when in record mode, before you start recording. I now give this product a 4* rating.