First impressions are that this camera is a hurried attempt to fill a gap between Analogue and Digital, but that is an injustice. It may not be as fancy or compact as some cameras but this may be just what you need, a practical digital video camera that doesnt cost a fortune to run and has a digital FireWire output. Unfortunately, under test this camera was not fully I-Link or FireWire controllable, although I managed to get the FireWire digital download for video editing working.

In this camera, Hitachi has succeeded in producing a good digital format camera, at a budget price, using Hi-8 format tapes. The Hi-8 format has two advantages: it allows you to reuse Hi-8 tapes from analogue days and these tapes are at least half the price of the standard digital tape, effectively cutting your operating costs.

The down side is that to handle the quality on a Hi-8 tape, Hitachi had to play with tape speed and the tapes dont run as long as theyre supposed to when run in standard mode; 40 minutes on a 60 minute tape is about average.

Your next question is probably like mine. Is the quality any less using a Hi-8 tape instead of the specially designed digital tapes? I understand that Hitachi went to considerable trouble to design a system that produces a picture quality on Hi-8 equivalentto that of the standard digital format. Horizontal resolution is quoted as 500 lines and the results I saw were certainly of a high quality.
While this camera may not have some of the bells and whistles of other more expensive cameras it packs a decent punch with its built-in facilities. From experience in the field, many of the missing features are superfluous anyway, and difficult to remember or use, so why pay for them?

While standard optical zoom is 10x you have up to 500x digital zoom and a built-in Electronic Image Stabiliser, to smooth the shakes at these sorts of distances. There is even a Time Base Correction facility for stabilising and replaying tapes from other cameras for instance.

There is a surprising dearth of buttons on this camera, compared to other cameras reviewed (see Sony DCR-TRV11E review, issue 39, p72) but this is still a pretty versatile camera, with most features and controls set up via an on-screen menu. Unfortunately some control buttons could be better placed for ease of access.

On-screen selection of menu items is made using the Tape Transport rocker control. It is about the size of a 20 cent piece and rocks around a central pivot. In replay mode it has four actions - play, stop, fast forward and rewind representing the points of the compass. These same positions are used to select menu items and adjust settings, but I found it a bit cumbersome.

When recording it is possible to apply digital effects, such as 16 x 9 mode (widescreen), negative image mode, or symmetric image - where a mirror is placed in the centre of the screen and the image is given a mosaic or oil painting look. Fade in and out capabilities are also available for effect. If you want to check the last second or so of a recording before continuing, that is possible with a press of a button. You are also provided with a range of prepared titles or you can create your own as needed.

Dubbing of audio/video in remote or standard configurations is easily achieved and clean edits should be possible with a flying erase head. For low light situations the built-in video light can be set to automatic or manual and there is a back light button for those times when you are working into
the sun.

This camera has still camera capability but the stills are recorded to tape rather that to chip memory, providing considerable capacity for storing stills on tape. Programming of shutter speed and mode for stills is also possible with a choice of Sports, Portrait, Spotlight and Gain up (low light) modes.

You wont be exhibiting at Cannes with the VM-D965LE but if youre making the transition to digital video recording then this is a good way to start without needing to shell out a fortune.

George Kimpton