Hitachi DZ-BD70E review

Performance
When the camera is switched on, the screen powers on in 6 seconds, with the disc access message onscreen for a further 6 seconds before the camcorder is ready to shoot. A quick start mode keeps the camera on standby for a limited time, with power-up and recording virtually instant.

A Blu-ray disc is included, but since the compartment is powered, you can't retrieve it if the battery dies

HD footage is crisp and sharp, with occasional compression artefacts. Motion blur is present when panning. The autofocus copes well with zooming and moving the camera, but only if moving fairly slowly: quick zooms see the focus drop out and the struggle to regain focus is hit and miss.

Autoexposure is surprisingly easily confused. Highlights tend to be blown out, especially when moving from dark areas to highly-contrasted light areas. For example, if moving from a street scene to the sky, detail is lost in the sky.

In indoor conditions, there is a lot of noise with the attendant loss of detail, but the autoexposure holds up better than expected when adjusting for light sources.

Conclusion
As the manufacturers of the only Blu-ray camcorder on the market, Hitachi holds a unique position. With the format war only just coming to an end, consumers haven't fully committed to Blu-ray yet. As such, it's unlikely many people are desperate to own a Blu-ray camcorder, cool as it is.

The DZ-BD70E certainly beats DVD-based camcorders' storage capacity, but we wonder if physical media is a blind alley in the age of giant hard drives like the 100GB Sony HDR-SR7. It's a decent and stylish, if slightly chunky, shooter. It's just not the best option for anyone wanting the convenience of disc recording with the quality of HD.

Edited by Jason Jenkins
Additional editing by Shannon Doubleday