Hitachi DZ-HS500 review

The DZ-HS500 is the latest hybrid camcorder from the company that pioneered the technology. This means that it records to two different formats, and can switch between them.

The HS500 has a 30GB hard drive, and also records to 8cm DVDs. At £290 it is extremely affordable for a camcorder, let alone one combines the advantages of two recording formats.

Design
As camcorders shrink to cola-can proportions, the size of DVD shooters is set by the size of the disks. At 505g the HS500 feels weighty enough to be steady in the hand without feeling heavy.

When you flip out the 69mm (2.7-inch) LCD screen to film yourself, the image will invert and you see the right way up

The shiny silver barrel is the only design flourish in this matt grey and black camcorder, with the chrome plating seemingly a magnet for fingerprints. It's the standard camcorder form factor, with viewfinder, hand grip and flip-out 69mm (2.7-inch) LCD screen.

The screen flips all the way over so you can film yourself, and the image will invert at the same time so it stays the right way up when you look at it from the front. Closing the screen activates the electronic viewfinder.

The record button, zoom rocker and sleep/restart are within reach of the right hand holding the camera. The sleep button puts the camera on standby and allows for one-second startup, but in normal use startup -- and switching between recording formats -- can be as much as a torturous seven seconds.

The selecter for different recording formats has a locking button to avoid accidental switching that makes it very hard to turn. A better safety feature would have been to put the selecter away from where hands grip.

Features
The hybrid recording features are the main events of the HS500. The 30GB hard drive can store seven hours of top quality video, 11 hours of fine and 23 hours of standard. This footage can then be treated to some basic in-camera editing, then transferred to DVD at 2x speed via a one-touch dubbing button.

DVDs can then be burnt, although you will need the power cable for that. This frees up the hard drive and allows DVDs to be switched over for long-term storage, accessing on a computer or watching with a standard DVD player.

Still pictures can also be stored on SD card, which means you cannot take a still picture while filming. Video cannot be written to SD.

Menus are clear and logical. A full auto button sets the camera up for instant shooting, while a quick menu button accesses a slimmed-down menu. Other features include the handy sleep mode and an impressive 30x zoom.