My mother is taking a trip to China after the New Year and she has always spoken of getting a camcorder for her trips. I think a camcorder would make a great present for her before she heads off.

She is a small woman and I don't want her carrying around something big while sightseeing. It also needs to take great photos besides video. I would like to stay under 650 dollars. I have found some cameras going for as much as 1000. The ones I seem to like are the 1 lb cameras from the JVC Everio line and Canon. I know it shouldnt be the main factor when buying a camera but the weight is a big issue. Also what is recommended for someone mini dv, dvd, or a hard drive? This needs to be pretty simple and basic for her

Any help would be much appreciated.

I'm kinda in the same boat as you. I'd like to get my wife a camcorder for Christmas. It would need to be easy to use, but I'd also like some nice features. I'm looking for a Hard Drive based recorder for ease of use. One thing I think I read about the Enverio line is they use a proprietary format for recording (I'm sure they all do) and you have to use THEIR software to mess with the videos, and people say the software really sucks. Plus you have to spend $100 to "upgrade" the software to be able to burn DVD's.

The Canon HV20 gets rave reviews around here and around the net. I picked one up at the beginning of summer and I can't say enough good things about it. They have a new HG10 camera out with has the Hard Disk built in.

I'm also looking for HD camera, preferably recording on flash (SD/MMC/MemoryStick), so there's not too many options. Hard drive would work too, but rather flash.

Seems the Samsung has the stupid encoding, so that's out.

The HV20 would be quite good I guess.

Mostly I'm interested on the Sony HDR-CX7.


The problem is, I want to use it in Europe too, so it needs to be able to shift from NTSC to PAL. I just spent more than 1 hour at local Circuit City trying to get them power up the display CX7 camcorder so I could check the menu options, but they couldn't power it up.

bhphoto.com does have "pal" versions of those, but they cost 150-250 more than their non-pal versions (which is same camrea I think, just with software changed, search with "pal 1080" to get some results, they don't show up in normal listing)

So please please please, someone with HD camera (HV20, CX7, other alternatives?) could you check the menu options if you can switch from NTSC to PAL.

Im taking any reasonable offers on my HV20 with great accessories including multiple batteries,multiple lens shades and original canon wide angle lens and mic
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