Hitachi Introduces New DVD Camcorders by News Editor Published on Jan 12, 2003 12:00 AM

In their press release Hitachi said ''Hitachi's new DVD camcorder models maintain the 2002 break-through design for recording DVD-R and DVD RAM while making it more convenient to carry and easier to record,'' said Leo Delaney, vice president of marketing for Hitachi America, Ltd., Home Electronics Division. ''With DVD-R format discs compatible with most DVD players on the market, consumers can make a recording and simply drop the disc into a DVD player to watch their home movies instantaneously.''

Each camcorder includes a 2.5 in. LCD screen, thumbnails of clips are displayed, and using the camcorders interface you can delete individual clips that you have recorded. Quoting the press release ''This sophisticated system allows consumers to re-order scenes and add special transition effects including fades and wipes without the need for a computer. Additionally, with the USB2.0 connection, video can be uploaded to a PC and edited with the included PC software. After editing, the video can be transferred back to the camcorder and burned onto a DVD-R for playback on most DVD players(1). Additionally, if the PC has a compatible 4.7G byte DVD-RAM or DVD-ROM drive(2), the user can simply place the DVD-RAM disc in the drive and download the information directly to the PC. ''

DZ-MV350A includes a 680K pixel 1/4 in. CCD with a 10x optical zoom. You can adjust white balance, exposure and foucus manually. The DZ-MV350A should be available in the second quarter of 2003 for $999.95.

The DZ-MV380A DVD camcorder comes with an SD card slot for saving digital stills, as well as an 8 MB SD card. The DZ-MV380A includes a one Mega Pixel 1/4 in. CCD and can save stills up to 1280 x 960 resolution. The DZ-MV380A should be available around the same time for $1,399.95.