Hi I have been researching so much that everything is becoming a blur. It could be that I am not using the correct search terms as well.

I will be using my next camcorder for filming painters/artists demonstrating how to do certain techniques. They will range in length from 15 minutes to 60 minutes I believe.

I have narrowed down my choices to Canon FS20 (this is from Best Buy only) and Sony SX41. Here is why I chose them.

Pros:

Dual or Hybrid (not sure the correct term) storage. Both to internal flash or memory stick. Memory stick included with both.

Supposedly simple to use.

One click transfer to computer. Sony has option for direct connection to DVD burner.

Good battery life.

The lowest prices I have found are reasonable to what I can pay.

Cons:

Canon: From guy I talked to at Best Buy who had just retured his to exchange for a different one. "great all round camera. Returned because of the very noticible click noise when turning on. Not great if you are a hunter."

Sony: A review I read said that there is a noticable purple haze around pictures.


If anyone can offer up any help on these cameras or something that has the features I am looking for, I would appreciate it.

There is a Canon Vixia HF10 on sale, refurbished, for $500 at TigerDirect.com. That would be both high quality and incredibly cheap. It also records to internal flash memory and memory cards. It's got really good 1080p video, which would be important when trying to capture fine detail in paintings.

If you're going to look at tiger direct, you might as well look at circuitcity.com -they're the same company now.

And there's a 15% bing cash back for circuitcity.com, which about covers the extended warranty you can get from squaretrade with a good 30% off coupon.