I'm very close to purchasing the Canon HV20, but am also interested in this new Hitachi. Has anyone seen any reviews, impressions, or hands on info? I have scowered the web and can't find anything. It's been out in Japan for over a month, and here in the US for a couple of weeks now. I noticed that Amazon.com has dropped the price by around $400 (not sure if that is a good sign or not).

Here is the Watch.Impress review:

Original Japanese:
http://www.watch.impress.co.jp/av/docs/20070905/zooma321.htm

English Translated:
http://babelfish.altavista.com/babelfish/trurl_pagecontent?lp=ja_en&trurl=http%3a%2f%2fwatch.impress.co.jp%2fav%2fdocs%2f2007090 5%2fzooma321.htm

-There are video samples in this site



I wouldn’t pay attention to the price drop because the competition is so fierce, the camcorder wouldn’t sell to well at the original price especially when you consider that the Canon HV20 now cost 850 and the JVC HD7 cost 1,100 at B&H.


If I had the money, I might consider this camcorder because it just seems to cool knowing that you can edit the footage from the hard drive to the mini Blu-Ray disc all within the camcorder itself.

If I were you I would wait for the review on Camcorderinfo.com which they claim will be up on their site soon.

Thanks for the info! The english translation was a little difficult to decipher, but it gave me a good idea of what to expect. It sounds like they weren't too excited about the video quality overall, but were impressed with the still photo quality.
I only have a couple of more days before I have to decide (due to a trip), so right now it looks like the Canon HV20 is the better option as I am looking for the best possible video quality in the $900-$1500 price range.