As a budget DVD camcorder, the DZ-BX35A is light on extra features and connectivity. The camcorder's only means of communicating with the outside world is a set of S-Video and composite A/V outputs. If you want any other jacks on your camera, you'll want to look at Hitachi's GZ series of DVD camcorders; they have S-Video and Composite inputs and outputs, microphone jacks, USB 2.0 support, and even accessory shoes. The only advantage that the DZ-BX35A has over its brothers is a 25X optical zoom lens, compared to the GZ camcorders' 10X and 15X zooms.
As with other DVD camcorders, the Hitachi DZ-BX35A's performance was hindered by its DVD media. Initializing and writing to disc often took several seconds, and finalizing a DVD after shooting takes several minutes. (The finalization process is required so that the resulting DVD can play back in a standard DVD player.) Again, this is common for this type of camcorder, so we won't whine too much. But the bigger gripe we had concerned the camcorder's autofocus: it's just not all that snappy, and we had some difficulty locking onto subjects at various distances. You can opt for manual focus, but to dial it in, you have to use the clumsy touch-sensitive buttons behind the LCD display, which makes it awkward to adjust precisely.
For its price, the DZ-BX35A's video quality is quite acceptable, and while it measures up to budget-priced miniDV camcorders ($300), it falls a little behind comparably priced DVD camcorders. Colors were muted but accurate, and images were reasonably sharp, though not as sharp as those of Hitachi's step-up models. However, the camcorder's small CCD had trouble reproducing finer details, and we noticed some oversaturation in sunlight.
The Hitachi DZ-BX35A is a decent budget camcorder, but a little more money will go a long way. The next step up in Hitachi's camcorders, the DZ-GX3100A, uses a 1.3-megapixel sensor and includes lots of extra connectivity. Since the price difference between it and DZ-BX35A is less than $100, you might want to consider getting the DZ-GX3100A instead.
- See more CNET content tagged:
- Hitachi Ltd.,
- camcorder,
- CCD,
- DVD,
- lens
Hitachi DZ-BX35A:
