Camcorders : Hitachi DZ-BX35A

This machine is junk. It would be ok for your first camcorder.

The picture quality indoors was plain awful. The auto-focus feature is slower than a dead bug. The file format is DVD mod files for putting the disk directly into the Home DVD Player. I had to convert the files to mpg prior to editing them. There is also no digital output whatsoever. No USB or firewire to get the video directly into the computer. You could do better with a $100 digital. I upgraded to the JVC 505 with harddrive an execellent camcorder. Hey, You don't always get what you pay for. Hitachi does make a DZ-GX3300A which has better features but the same lousy auto-focus. Hide Full Review

Do not buy unless you want to waste time recording and then losing everything you record.
I have lost my daughters birthday party, a trip to a fair and some other priceless moments, because of disc errors. Halfway through recording I get messages saying the disc is corrupt and needs to format. Meaning 'erase everything that I have filmed up to that point". This has happened multiple times. In fact i have yet to make it through the finalizing process on a single CD. The last straw was a trip to thailand. I got through the entire CD of filming over the whole course of my vacation, only to get home and lose everything. i tried to finalize the CD. It got to a minute left of finalizing and came up with another error message but of course it wanted to format to solve the problem. The whole solution to any problem on this camera is to format. Again, this erases everything. I have wasted 30-40 hours of taping without a single bit of footage. I am back to mini dv. dont buy! Hide Full Review

I really liked this camera, it's easy to use, it has good quality, great features... but the battery does not last very long. The other cons are that until you finalize it, an error can occur and it will erase your stuff but that happens rarely. But overall i really enjoy it... Hide Full Review