Would like a good one for a reasonable price (few hundred $$). I don't want to mess with firewire and it needs to be user-friendly for the tech-impaired. Does such a thing exist?
for christmas I got my DH a canon DC210 ( i think that is what it is) he is very much the novice when it comes to cameras/camcorders. it uses the mini dvd's.
Took him a while to figure out how to view what was on that DVD on the pc (he hadn't figured out he had to close or finalize or - something) the dvd.
Once he got that straightened out he really started to enjoy it. It was only - gosh in the 300.00 price range at best buy.
It is pretty basic - has image stability. Just enough for him to use for vacations, storm spotting and just playing around.
I haven't used it yet - I am too busy with the dslr. So I can't give you any personal experience. But if DH figured it out - it is very user friendly.
We have an Sony that uses mini-dv tapes and we bought DD a Canon ZR800 something, also uses mini-dv. Both are under $300- very easy to use and take very good quality video.
As an occasional professional video guy, I highly recommend the cannon small camcorders. They mange to pack alot of the image quality from their professional line into their consumer line. You will NOT be disappointed.