I am shopping for a HDD camcorder. This is the first HDD that I have bought and the more I look into which one I want the more confusing it gets. I would like to get one that has at least 30GB hard drive or more with a decent optical zoom. I would like the picture quality to be good and I would really like to have a view finder. I will be using it for home movies not work. Now the problem, my budget. I was hoping to spend under 400.00 and I will most likely buy on ebay to keep costs down. I know I will not be able to get all the things I want, but I thought I would list them anyway. We were looking at the Panasonic SDR-H40, but I am open to all suggestions.

don't know what to do. You read all these reviews and some say good things about a camcorder and some say really bads things. I was looking at the Sony DCR-SR45, and I see good and bad but the bad stuff I see freaks me out like grany picture quality. I need a camcorder that will be good. Right now I am thinking of keeping my current sony DCR-TRV350 but the tape conversion is a real pain and a bit big and heavy. I just want a good camcorder that I can record my family vacations, copy into a file on my computer and then burn to a dvd and my external hard drive for safe keeping. Please I need suggestions.