Compare Prices : Hitachi DZ-BD7HE

Review summary: Now that HD DVD has drawn its last gasp and the format war is over, Hitachi must be breathing a sigh of relief, having just introduced a pair of Blu-ray supporting HD camcorders, of which the 5.3mp CMOS sensor DZ-BD7HE is one. Due to the fact that it ...

Pros: Records to 30GB hard drive, removable Blu-ray disc, DVD or SD card ; both high- and standard-definition capture

Cons: Bulkier than hard drive or SD-only devices, discs easily corrupted, operation overcomplicated and fiddly, sluggish to focus and noisy in low light

Verdict: Unfortunately, the Hitachi also delivers one of the noisiest low light performances here, and its lens provides a narrower field of view than the others. While colour is vivid, it's too warm to match reality, and the audio is a little hollow sounding.

Review summary: The Hitachi DZ-BD7HE is an HD camcorder with Blu-ray recording capabilities.

Verdict: It's got an interesting feature set, and you can't fault the storage options, but we weren't fully convinced by the Hitachi DZ-BD7HE's recording quality. And at £850, we would expect to be.

Review summary: Big features mean a big cam; the BD7 is both larger and heavier than most DVD-only models

Verdict: Our main gripe, though, is that you cannot capture standard-definition to the HDD (although 'direct' DVD-recording is possible). Instead, you have to 'downconvert' when dubbing to DVDs. This wastes time. Another disadvantage is the potential quality ...

Review summary: The world's first Blu-ray shooter rocks up just as the HD DVD hits the rocks.

Pros: Hybrid technology; Backwards compatibility for DVD

Cons: Design; Shaky movies; Shocking lowlight performance

Verdict: Well ahead of the game for Blu-ray cams, in fact too far. There's a long way to go between this and a top-performing HD disc cam