Hitachi DZ-GX3300E review

Performance
A few seconds after switching to record mode, the Hitachi DZ-GX3300E is ready to record. The zoom functions smoothly, and its moderate amount of tension makes transitions between various zoom speeds comfortable and easy to control. In most light levels, the autofocus responds rapidly, though as can be expected, it moves significantly slower in very low light and tends to hunt around in extremely low light. The DZ-GX3300E's digital image stabilisation helped keep our footage steady out to about 75 per cent of the camera's zoom range. Towards the far end of the zoom range, it just wasn't enough to compensate for hand shake. Sound from the adequately sensitive internal microphone was good, and it didn't pick up any noise from the lens's drive motor.

Manual focus using the touch-sensitive buttons was difficult. Even though the 64mm (2.5-inch) LCD screen is sharp and served up a useful image under various lighting conditions, it was hard to tell from the small screen when the focus was perfect. A magnified portion of the viewfinder, as offered on many digital still cameras, might have helped in this case. Also, the buttons proved an uncomfortable interface.

Hitachi rates the battery life at as long as 105 minutes when using the best recording quality, though you can expect about half that with typical start/stop recording and occasional replay of scenes you've shot. Similar to last year's DZ-GX20E, the Hitachi DZ-GX3300E's video quality is about what you'd expect from a mid-priced MiniDV camcorder.

Image quality
At low compression, video was sharp with some motion artefacts and edge crawl, along with some blooming. At higher compression levels, banding showed up more often in areas with significant gradations in brightness. Overall, the DZ-GX3300E, with its higher megapixel count, was a touch sharper than its lower-quality siblings, the Hitachi DZ-GX3200E and the Hitachi DZ-GX3100E. Colours, though accurate, were sometimes oversaturated.

As usual, low-light footage exhibited more grain than well-lit scenes, though the DZ-GX3300E yielded pleasing low-light video that was brighter and more colourful than one might expect at this price. The low-light mode helped to brighten dim scenes, though it does noticeably lower the shutter speed, so moving objects and pans look choppy.

The Hitachi DZ-GX3300E's still images were impressive for a camcorder, though the auto white balance produced extremely warm results with our lab's tungsten lights. The tungsten white-balance mode worked better, but we had to set white balance manually to get truly neutral results.

Additional editing by Nick Hide