Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)I am writing this review based on the price of around $200. Im sure a 600$ + hd video camera would be better in every way. Same as you cant complain your new Kia dosent have all the features or is not as nice as your friends new BWM.
Most other HD video cameras in the price range look like toys, with small 1 to 2" flip screens, mono sound that sounds bad, no optical zoom, the video quality is poor even at 720, colors washed out and just not worth messing with unless they are for your 10 year old to record his bicycle stunts.I just got this camera and it seems very good for the price and is not built like a toy. Has a large 3" lcd, stereo sound, 5x optical zoom, latching SD card cover and uses common batteries. The colors look very accurate and bright, when played back on my 47" 1080 lcd tv, it looks very nice, everything is clear and sharp. The hand strap is adjustable and unlike my $500 JVC hard drive camera, this one adjusts big enough that my hand fits in it. Also unlike my more expensive JVC, you can close the screen and keep recording or keep the camera turned on. Even if its off you wont miss a shot, it power up and it ready to record in about 2 seconds. Besides white balance and night mode I dont think there are other manual control settings that would you find on a more expensive camera.
I have seen reviews on this camera with people saying the video playback on their computer is terrible, studders, the sound is out of sync or the picture is blocky. First, if you are going to play / edit HD video on your computer, read the box & website. They recommended a 3.0 ghz computer or faster. (To find out your speed, open your start menu and Right click on My Computer (or Computer) and select properties, it will say on that page 3.0ghz, 2.2 Ghz, etc)... If your computer is slower than that or has low end video hardware you may not be able to watch 1080p movies on your computer. You can play them back directly from the camera to your tv. That computer playback issue is not a fault of this video camera and HD videos from any camera would be the same. You can however, use any speed computer for simply storing your videos or resizing them for youtube, email, etc. Just expect it will take your computer some time to convert the movies.
The camera does have standard composite out that will work on any tv with a single yellow video input plug, so no computer is required to watch movies. It also comes with a composite cable( 3 connector) that will plug into most HDTV's and you can watch your HD video right off the camera.
I purchased a 2nd battery when I bought the camera, it uses the same as a Fuji NP-120 and a good quality battery can be bought for under $20. The battery is suppose to last 1.5 - 2 hours and the charger is a 2 hour charger, so with 2 batteries should be able to keep recording forever if you have the charger with you. You can also get car chargers for this battery type for around $20 if you want to take a road trip.
For the technical parts: The audio records AAC 2 channel at 128k. 1440x1080p (HD) records around 8000-10000k, 1280x720p (HD) 4000-5000k, 848x480p (about the same size as a standard DVD) 2500-3500k and if you want to email or send a video right to youtube or myspace it records 320x240 at about 500-550k.
It officially supports SD and SDHC cards to 8GB, although some users said they have used larger cards on message boards. I would recommend testing them before recording anything important if you are tiring a larger card that officially supported. You are limited to a file size of just under 4GB per single video, this is the limit of the file system used on the SDHC cards and effects all card based video cameras. That works out to 50-60 minutes of continuous recording at 1080p & over 2 hours at 720p, you only need to stop for a seconds, then you can start again and keep doing that until your card is full.I have only had one issue with this camera. The way it comes from the factory is the sound level comes down when zooming, so it dosent pick up the zoom motors, but you loose a few seconds of sound. The option is to use a slower zoom speed then the audio does not cut out. You can goto the dxgusa web site and download this update if you want it.
The directions were kind of unclear, to get it to work, 1. Take an empty SD card and put it in a card reader, format it for FAT32, 2. download the firmware from the website and extract or open the file, 3. drag or copy the file named like dvh596.bin to the empty card 4. Put the card in the camera, flip the mode switch to SET & press DISP & then ZOOM in at the same time, select FV VERSION, press enter (the joystick IN) and it should then update the camera. When it says Finished, you will have to turn the camera off and restart it.
Since updating the camera the zoom is slightly slower but the sound stays steady and you still do not hear any noises when zooming in / out.
In short, if you are expecting studio quality video, you should be looking at a studio quality camera, they start around $3000 and to shoot Hollywood movies expend to spend about $20,000, besides lenses, memory & battery backs, etc.... If you want a camera that looks much better than a mini-DVD camera or and is easier to hold than a digital camera shooting video, then here you go.
Follow-up:
Now Ive had the camera for maybe 1 1/2 to 2 years there are a few problems Ive found. One is it does poorly in low light conditions (mainly with bad lighting indoors) everything tends to turn red or disappear altogether. You can turn on Night Mode and it makes everything brighter but movement appears in slow motion and blurred. Also at times it can not seem to focus correctly and continuously focuses slightly in and out, most noticeably in low light, close up (6-10 feet) and on tripod or other fixed position. When moving the camera around or in bright conditions its does not have that problem or is not noticeable.
Click Here to see more reviews about: DXG DXG-595V 5.0 Megapixel High-Definition Ultra Digital Video Camera
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