Similar Strengths
If you have a DVD-RAM player, both the Hitachi and Pansonic DVD camcorders give you video that looks better than the RAM-compatible footage captured by the Sony we reviewed in this roundup. Both the Hitachi and Panasonic have fewer external control buttons than the Sony. Both have a separate SD Card slot to store still images, making it easier to transfer images to your notebook or PDA. But neither has a separate still-image shutter release like the Sony, which just complicates matters.

What’s That Cartridge For?
It’s too bad the Hitachi's and Pansonic’s overall image-quality advantage is spoiled by the inconvenience of the disc caddy. This delicate piece of plastic requires you to simultaneously press two small latches in order to open it and swap out the disc. Once a disc is loaded, you have to fit the caddy into just the right spot inside each camcorder’s disc slot.

Both have dedicated disc-navigation buttons that lead directly to the DVD-R disc-finalization function. Instead of the optical image-stabilization technology employed on the Sony, both the Hitachi and Panasonic use an electronic system, which produces noticeable jitters when you zoom in.

Once you’ve got the disc in the camcorder, you have to wait for the unit to align and access before you can record. This disc-access function pops up periodically during stop-and-start shooting, which is something of a pain. During shooting, the disc mechanism rumbles and grumbles rather disconcertingly, more so on the Hitachi than the Panasonic.

Good-Looking Video
The colors produced by the Hitachi camcorder on DVD-RAM discs are deep and true, if a bit warmer than in real life, and seem to pop out almost unrealistically from the screen. Flesh tones looked far healthier compared to those captured by the Sony. Unfortunately, this image quality doesn’t translate to the far more compatible DVD-R discs. Hitachi enables DVD-R recording only in the lowest-quality SP mode, and the result is fuzzy, grainy footage.

Meanwhile, Panasonic obviously used some of its own technology to spruce up its model. While both the Hitachi and Panasonic have a swing-out 2.5-inch LCD, Panasonic’s screen is slightly brighter and displays truer colors than the Hitachi LCD.

Panasonic uses a full 1/4-inch CCD (as opposed to Hitachi’s 1/3.8-inch imaging chip). This seemingly insignificant difference results in colors that are less reddish and more even than those produced by the Hitachi. In many ways, the images produced by the Panasonic seem to occupy a more natural middle ground between Sony’s slightly washed-out video and Hitachi’s almost garishly bright pictures.

That’s a Wrap
If you don’t mind a little caddy wrestling and you have a DVD-RAM-compatible player, the Hitachi DZ-MV580A will reward you with sharp footage. However, thanks to the Panasonic VDR-M70PP’s brighter LCD and larger CCD, we think it’s the better of the two DVD-RAM/-R camcorders.

Read About the Sony DCR-DVD201 >>