Quick Review Camcorders: Hitachi DZ-GX3300

The Hitachi DZ-GX3300A represents the best of what Hitachi has to offer in 2006. Frankly, it’s not much. With a design based largely on an outdated Panasonic camcorder body, it’s clear that Hitachi is far from the cutting edge. In a crowded field of upper-end DVD camcorders – many of them very good – this Hitachi simply cannot compete.

The DZ-GX3300A comes equipped with a large 1/3” CCD sensor, which should be large enough to produce great colors and a sharp picture. To the contrary, we found heavily oversaturated colors and blown out highlights (the white parts of the image). Standing next its peers in the market, this camcorder put in a truly poor showing. 

While we were disappointed with the performance in bright light, we were actually shocked at the quality of the low light tests. A 1/3” imager should be large enough to capture a lot of light. But even in moderate low light, the DZ-GX3300A produced a dark, grainy image that should only be tolerated from low-end camcorders – never a camcorder of this price.

Often, a poor performer can make up some ground by offering a pleasant interface, not so with the DZ-GX3300A. The button layout is nothing short of maddening. All of the vital controls are located on the left side of the body, making one-handed operation impossible. The touchpad, which is the main navigation tool for maneuvering through the menu, is too small and unresponsive to all but hard pushes. All this pushing, in turn, rocks the camcorder body and upsets the shot. The menus themselves are the saving graces of handling, mitigated by the fact that the camcorder does not offer that many manual controls. In this way, the DZ-GX3300A resembles a Sony camcorder, but Sony has the benefit of superb ease of use and automatic controls. 

Beginners will be disappointed to see that the DZ-GX3300A does not offer a clear cut auto mode or easy mode. Rather, each of the manual controls – focus, exposure, and white balance – can be activated individually for personal settings. This requires some level of attentiveness from the user, though, to keep an eye on the settings and make sure that the camcorder is not locked into some previous manual setting that is no longer wanted.

Making manual adjustments is no great pleasure given the poorly placed buttons. The focus, exposure, and white balance settings are all rudimentary, and any Panasonic or JVC camcorder would nave more and better options. Even Sony, notorious for a lack of manual controls, offers a number of convenient semi-manual controls like Spot Focus and Spot Meter. The DZ-GX3300A does not include manual shutter speed or aperture control.  

To the DZ-GX3300A’s credit, Hitachi does include a microphone input, which improves any home video production immensely. There is also a hot accessory shoe for attaching shotgun mics or video lights. It also features analog inputs for transferring older, analog home movies to DVD, which can then be archived to full-sized DVDs.

The DZ-GX3300A records video in the MPEG-2 format to 8cm DVDs in a number of formats: DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+RW, and DVD-RAM. The breadth of options is one of Hitachi’s selling points for the camcorder, but it is not a very compelling one.

After reading this review, you may be wondering what reason someone might have for buying the DZ-GX3300A. In short, we have no answer for you. Every major camcorder manufacturer offers a better option than this. Turn away, friends; turn away before you are parted from your dollars.
 

Hitachi DZ-GX3300 - THE BOTTOM LINE Rating: 202.82

Likes

- Jaw-dropping video resolution and decent still resolution - Good selection of ports - Microphone jack

Dislikes

- Very poor handling and a cheaply made body - Despite the big 1/3" sensor, video quality is very disappointing. - More than any other camcorder this year, the DZ-GX3300 does not live up to its on-paper specs.

Panasonic VDR-D300 Rating: 215.88	Sony DCR-DVD405 Rating: 207.59	Canon DC40 Rating: 198.98	Canon DC22 Rating: 189.46	JVC GZ-MG37 Rating: 168.87
Better	Better	Better	Better	Better
-Video Performance -Overall Manual Control -Focus -Exposure -Shutter Speed -White Balance -Gain -Ease Of Use -Still Perfomance -VCR Mode -Wide Angle -LCD / Viewfinder -Handling -Widescreen -Other Features -Value	-Video Performance -Automatic Control -Zoom -Focus -White Balance -Ease Of Use -Still Features -Still Perfomance -VCR Mode -Low Light Performance -Wide Angle -LCD / Viewfinder -Handling -Other Features -Value	-Video Performance -Automatic Control -Overall Manual Control -Focus -Exposure -Shutter Speed -White Balance -Ease Of Use -Still Features -Still Perfomance -VCR Mode -Low Light Performance -Wide Angle -Handling -Widescreen -Other Features -Value	-Video Performance -Automatic Control -Overall Manual Control -Focus -Exposure -Shutter Speed -White Balance -Other Manual Control -Ease Of Use -VCR Mode -Wide Angle -LCD / Viewfinder -Handling -Widescreen -Other Features -Value	-Overall Manual Control -Focus -Exposure -Shutter Speed -White Balance -Gain -Ease Of Use -Zoom Ratio -Wide Angle -Portability -Compression -Editing -Widescreen -Other Features
Equal	Equal	Equal	Equal	Equal
-Zoom -Exposure -Shutter Speed -Other Manual Control -Still Features -Zoom Ratio -Audio -Portability -Compression -Media -Editing -24P/Scan Rates	-Overall Manual Control -Exposure -Shutter Speed -Gain -Other Manual Control -Still Resolution -Zoom Ratio -Compression -Media -Editing -Widescreen -24P/Scan Rates	-Zoom -Gain -Other Manual Control -Zoom Ratio -LCD / Viewfinder -Portability -Compression -Media -Editing -24P/Scan Rates	-Zoom -Gain -Still Features -Zoom Ratio -Portability -Compression -Media -Editing -24P/Scan Rates	-Other Manual Control -24P/Scan Rates
Worse	Worse	Worse	Worse	Worse
-Video Resolution -Automatic Control -Still Resolution -Low Light Performance -Battery -Jacks / Ports / Plugs	-Video Resolution -Audio -Portability -Battery -Jacks / Ports / Plugs	-Video Resolution -Still Resolution -Audio -Battery -Jacks / Ports / Plugs	-Video Resolution -Still Resolution -Still Perfomance -Low Light Performance -Audio -Battery -Jacks / Ports / Plugs	-Video Performance -Video Resolution -Automatic Control -Zoom -Still Features -Still Resolution -Still Perfomance -VCR Mode -Low Light Performance -LCD / Viewfinder -Audio -Handling -Battery -Media -Jacks / Ports / Plugs -Value