Hitachi DZ-BD70E in Camcorders

The BD70E did fulfil its promise of immediate playback via Blu-ray - we were able to pull out the BD-RE disc we had been using and simply pop it into a Panasonic DMP-BD50. Once the player had figured out what kind of media had been inserted, it got on with playing the footage. However, while each clip had its own chapter marker, there was no menu to browse - the clips simply played one after another. It's also worth noting that BD-R discs need finalising before they will be recognised by a player.

While playback is a doddle, editing footage from the HD70E is a bit more complicated. We found we couldn't simply insert the discs into a PC Blu-ray drive to drag and drop files, nor could we hook up the camcorder via USB. Instead, the bundled Pixela ImageMixer 3 HD software is required to copy files off to a local hard disk via the USB connection. After that, the footage becomes regular AVCHD MTS files, so are editable in any AVCHD-compatible app, which of course doesn't include Adobe Premiere Elements.

The Hitachi DZ-BD70E is likely to win a few friends among gadget-lovers who want to enjoy HD home movies on their HDTVs without any hassle. In this respect, it delivers on its promise. However, it's not the best HD camcorder around for the money in terms of features or image quality - Canon's HF10 is cheaper and much more accomplished in either respect.

Media is still pricey, too, with 8cm BD-RE discs costing nearly £20, and even BD-R over a tenner. So the BD70E is a one-trick pony. If you like that trick, it's worth adding to your stable, but otherwise there are much better options in the field.

Author: James Morris