Reet, my mom has told me to look for a camcorder so she can buy me one as long as it isn't too expensive. So what exactly should I be looking for? I honestly have no idea what makes a good camcorder or a bad one for that matter. The last camera I bough twas my Pentax Optio about 4 or 5 years ago so I don't even know anything about them.

It will be mainly for recording my son as although I don't think I'd use one I remembering being a bit miffed that there's no videos of me growing up where as all my mates' parents seem to have videos of them as kids so don't want my kids to feel left out. Plus it would allow my mom to feel more involved with her grandson that lives the other side of the world from her and she also said she could borrow it when she visits.

So far I'm leaning towards a Sony with a 30GB harddrive though no clue why. Anyone else any more clued up on them? They all seem to have zoom and there's no way I'll be trying to make the next blockbuster movie with it so special effects and whatever are of no importance.

As its based around getting your kids I would aim for one that turns on fast.
silly at it sounds it would come in usful as most moments happen and having to wait 10-20seconds for something + to tuen on and work means u miss it.
Hi fps would be amother, you would be surprised how many cams bler fast moving objects even today.
I'd say go digital, the advantag sided with digital for editing recording to a DvD format over tape.
Thought quality is the other way still.

I'm drunk atm and my info is based on uni from a couple years ago now but still, ill post something more usful for u tomorrow if needed.

Yee I was always going to get digital, I had a tape one before and quite frankly it was shit, plus getting something from tape to DVD would be too much hassle for me. I'm thinking about JVC now. This one seems quite nice and the added fact it's not the standard silver is a bonus

I did the same thing when my son was born and bought one of these and the quality is pretty good and very easy to get onto the PC for coding onto DVD's etc using a firewire cable.

At the time, this was the best way to get good quality without spending crazy money, although I imagine that things have improved as I've had it nearly 3 years now, but still very happy with it.

EN

When I worked for Apple and we had to make various movies, and also when I worked for Joost and was making Usability videos, we used these:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sanyo-Xacti-Dig ... 74&sr=1-21

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Bundle-Sanyo-VP ... 74&sr=1-21

Small, good battery life, easy to use, and excellent quality. With the price of SD cards now so cheap, they make a really good buy... less than £200? for me they seem like a bargain these days, as I used to pay a lot more.

100% recommended.

Thanks all but I ran out of time and just ordered the one from TigerDirect. As soon as I mentioned a red camcorder the wife seemed to change her mind about it all being up to me which one we get.

Just got it today and Christ they weren't kidding when they said it was the worlds smallest harddrive camcorder. My last camcorder was bigger than the box it came in. May need to buy some extra batteries as the one that came with it seems to last about 90 minutes which is shite but it's the smallest battery available. So far though very pleased with it and the controls are awesome, the slider bar reminds me of KITT.