Digital Trends

Hitachi DZ-GX20A

August 28th, 2005 | by David Elrich

Features and Design

It's really amazing, how much smaller the new fifth generation DVD camcorders are compared to their pioneering cousins.  Still, the DZ-GX20A weighs 1.2 pounds and measures 4.8W x 3.4H x 2D", so it's not something you'll drop in your pocket (unless you're wearing cargo pants.)  Camcorders are a commitment, not for spur-of-the-moment memory recording, so expect to buy a bag to hold your extra discs, spare battery, recharger, and so on.

The camcorder has a rather utilitarian design, made of metal and plastic, but to be honest, no DVD camcorder other than the Sony DCR-DVD7 ($699) has a truly distinctive style.  They all have to hold 8cm (3") blank discs, which really puts a crimp on the industrial design team.  And since they require so much power compared to digital cameras, the batteries are huge appendages.  Don't get me wrong:  This Hitachi isn't Quasimodo ugly, but it's not heading for the Museum of Modern Art's design Hall of Fame.

Overall, the DZ-GX20A is rather button-free and is not intimidating.  The left side has a 4:3 2.5-inch flip-out LCD screen that lets you frame your videos and also acts as a light in dark settings.  Above the panel are four keys including Select, Disc Navigation (to go to a specific scene), Menu and Stop/Exit.  There's also a four-way arrow pad to make menu selections.  Open the screen and you'll find buttons to make manual focus, exposure and back light adjustments.  You'll also find the door covering SD card slot.  The front is dominated by the lens and the flash; underneath is a stereo mic and a door hiding the USB and A/V connectors as well an input for an external mic.

The right side is completely dedicated to the disc slot, while the rear has the .2" color LCD viewfinder with diopter adjustment, a Disc Eject key as well as the Mode dial with settings for Video, Stills and Card (if you want to save images to SD memory rather than the disc.)  Although a disc holds 750 1600 x 1200 pixel images, you might want the convenience of easily popping the card into a reader, printer or a display device.  The top of the camcorder has a wide-tele key, a dedicated photo button and a hot shoe for optional lights and microphones. 

The DZ-GX20A comes with a two-hour battery, charger, AC adapter, strap, one blank DVD-R disc, lens cap, wireless remote, USB and A/V cables and software CD ROM, and even a disc cleaning cloth.  There's a huge printed manual, but don't freak out over the size (it's in both English and French) but there's still 182 pages to wade through with more footnotes than a quantum mechanics doctoral thesis.

Image Courtesy of Hitachi America