Need help/recommendations buying a digital camcorder...

[mookie]

Our camcorder is ancient and barely works half the time, and before the baby is born, we are looking at getting a digital one. Ideally, I would love one that took still pictures, was small and compact to hold, very user firendly, and played dvds straight from the recorder into the dvd player. Anyone have any suggestions?

Not quite sure what we want to spend, so any info would be helpful right now. Thanks!!!

 

[bicker]

Unfortunately, cameras tend to do one or the other well: still or video. I strongly recommend you not try to accomplish both purposes in the same device. You'll end up being disappointed with the results with regard to one of the two outputs.

I don't like the camcorders which record directly onto DVDs, because DVDs aren't as good of a long-term storage medium as mini-DV tape. It is relatively easy to Firewire mini-DV into a computer, where you can make DVDs to your heart's content.

I love my Sony mini-DV camcorder. I press the EASY button, and everything comes out perfectly. It's small and very light.