It's almost 3 months since I bought my Hitachi dvd camcorder. I thought I'll sum up my experience with the same for the benefit of others. The Hitachi DVD-CAM GX3200 comes with a 1.5 pixel resolution for video and 4MP reso for still images. For finer details, you can refer to the product specs available at the bottom of this blog. The best part I liked and had to shell out extra was for the infra red. This allows me to use my dvd-cam even in the dark and saved my $600 for the lights which I would otherwise have had to buy. The camcorder features Hitachi lenses and not the Carl Zeiss lenses which many would have heard of. Hitachi makes the world's best lenses atleast according to the sales guy. The Hitachi GX3200 features automatic stabilisation to correct errors induced by movement in the hands of inexperienced cameramen like myself which is another feature I liked. The sales guy was also kind enough to add a wide angle lens and a 6 hrs battery to the total package. The battery was another $200 extra but definitely worth it. The wide angle only adds marginal ability to shoot wide angle shots but is good nevertheless. The camcorder can use DVD-RAM or DVD-RW or DVD-R as the media. Again, I got 3 discs free along with the camera. These are mini discs and of 1/2 hour duration each. Iam not sure if there's longer duration discs of same size. So far I have used my camcorder to shoot the Chennai Open tennis, the music festival held during december and a few personal events. A really nice buy in my opinion and has sine become one of my prized possessions.

The camera specs:

Features

1. USB Connection Yes
   
2. Recording Format DVD+RW (8cm), DVD-RAM (8cm), AVCHD to DVD,
   
3. Optical Zoom Factor 15x
   
4. Digital Zoom Factor 800x
   
5. Image Stabiliser Yes
   
6. Colour Viewfinder Yes
   
7. LCD Screen Yes
   
8. LCD Screen Size 2.7 inch
   
9. Webcam Function No
   
10. Built-In Flash No
    
11. Photo Mode Yes
    
12. Photo Mode Resolution 1280 x 960
    
13. Media Card SD Card
    
14. Sound Stereo
    
15. Audio Dubbing No
    
16. Battery Type Lithium Ion
    
17. Manual Focus Yes
    
18. Manual Exposure Yes
    
19. Manual White Balance Yes
    
20. Backlight Compensation Yes
    
21. Built-in Light No
    
22. Built-in Editor Yes
    
23. 3 CCD No
    
24. Minimum Light (Lux) 0.3 lux in Low Light mode
    
25. Remote Control Yes
    
26. Accessory Shoe Yes
    
27. Analogue Inputs No
    
28. External Microphone Socket Yes
    
29. Filter Thread 30.5mm
    
30. Dimensions (WxHxD) mm 48 x 86 x 121mm
    
31. Weight 420g without Battery