Photos: Hitachi DZ-HS300A

Like many consumer models, the HS300A includes a standby, or "sleep," mode, which allows the camcorder to quickly snap back to Ready.

On most camcorders, you have to press the little gray button in order to rotate the power switch in either direction. On the HS300A, you only press it down to turn the power on--the switch rotates easily to any other position, including Off. Oops. There is a lock switch to keep you from accidentally switching from HDD to DVD modes, but not vice versa.

As long as your video is all recorded at the same aspect ratio--4:3 or 16:9--and the camcorder is connected to the AC adapter, pressing the red Dubbing button automatically converts the video to DVD-player-readable files and copies them to a DVD. If you have a DVD-R disc loaded, however, it won't automatically finalize the disc for you. That's another one-button operation.