What kind of camcorder should I buy?

[Rugratzzzzzzzzzzz]

First brands, any of the known electronic brands, Sony, Canon, and so on, I would stay away from the little camera's the quality is ok but they are so small its hard to keep the poxy things still.

format, Mini-dv (tape) Flash drive (small cards) HDD (hard drive), and last mini-dvd (DO NOT TOUCH ONE OF THESE) I suggest in that order. Tape is still the best for quality, but a little more involved in getting the video onto your computer, another plus for tape is that the tapes are cheap, and many people only use the tape once, then keep the video on the tape as a backup.

Flash drive records in the same way as a HDD camera, but I think the quality is better than the HDD camcorder. Both are easy to get onto your computer, just copy the video, from the camera to the computer. Hdd cameras do not like to be knocked, as this can stop the camera from working. If the hard drive dies then you have lost everything on the camera, they are more prone to this thatn the flash drive. even tape is better if the tape should get damaged out of hundreds I have used I have damaged two, even then I could still get 90% of the video back.

So in a word or two, select a budget, and go for it. do not worry about features on the camera such as editing, do that on your computer. effects again do on the computer. make sure that it has an optical zoom, ignore anything to do with digital zoom. also low light (measured in LUX) as close to zero as you can get many cameras will record in zero light such as Sony with their night shot, great for recording the little one asleep (grandparents love that). video from any of the above cameras can be posted to any site you want Emailed recorded to DVD, its your choice.


Good luck

RR