By Christine Frietchen on September 2, 2009 in
High-definition camcorders are getting cheaper fast -- but there's such a thing as too cheap.
Lest you be tempted by the $80 DXG DXG-567V, heed the words of Christopher Breen, who describes "the depths of its awfulness" at length in his Macworld review. According to Breen, the DXG-567V struggles to adjust between light and dark, and bright objects look blown out: Breen posts an image of a daisy that looks like it's crafted out of fluorescent yellow plastic. When Breen tries to zoom, the image stutters. Every time he moves the DXG-567V's joystick, he hears it on the video.
An earlier but still available model, the DXG DXG-569V, took last place in Gizmodo's shootout of 2008 pocket camcorders. Despite being the only HD model in the test, "The DXG took the worst overall video of the bunch," reviewer Benny Goldman writes. It also drained its AAA batteries in 25 minutes.
Yet another hands-on review, this time at Wired magazine, isn't much better. The title of Rick Broida's article pretty much says it all: "Little Flip Mino Clone is a Plastic Piece of Poo".
Read about better choices, including the top-rated Pure Digital Flip UltraHD in our latest update on HD camcorders.
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