DVD is said to be to movies what CD was to music. Well-filmed DVD movies are better in all respects than those recorded on VHS, so the idea of a digital video camera recording direct to DVD disc would appear sound.
Hitachi has certainly proven it can be done and the DZ-MV270E is at the top of a range of three DVD cameras it has on the market (the DZ-MV208E was reviewed in September 2002, page 51) and of the three cameras reviewed in this issue (Canon MX2i, Panasonic NVGS5A and the MV207E) it had the best zoom and, by a fraction, the best picture quality. An electronic image stabiliser compensates for any shaking that may be caused by the additional weight (it weighs 710g).
The built-in DVD menu system automatically divides your recordings into scenes and stills for easier editing. However, you may encounter problems when transferring images from the camera to your PC, particularly if you like the idea of just slipping the disc into your computer and accessing the movie and stills. Your computer must be able to read 8cm DVD-RAM or DVD-R discs and that automatically precludes any slot-loading DVD player, as found in some Apple iMacs.
A disc of each format is included with the camera but you can only take still photographs when using the DVD-RAM disk, which can be used multiple times. The DVD-R disc, on the other hand, only allows you to record once.
If your computer is not compatible with either format, the alternative is to connect the camera to your PC using USB 2.0, something a majority of older PCs do not have. Unusually, Hitachi does not offer a FireWire (IEEE 1394 connection) and that, along with the disk compatibility issue will be enough to put some people off this otherwise excellent camera.