I found this site through a Google search, and after reading through some of the posts here it seems to be a quality forum with great members willing to help noobs like me cut through all the marketing B.S. and make a wise purchase. I hope I have not mis-judged!
At any rate, here's my situation. My wife and I are expecting our first child at the end of January 2009. We have never owned a camcorder before, so we truly are noobs in this. The camcorder will be used for video at least 95% of the time - I have my Canon D-SLR (30D) and lens collection for still pictures.
I don't anticipate doing a lot of heavy editing. We mostly just want a video camera to capture precious moments on video for archival purposes, as well as to be able to send to friends and family (on DVDs) that are not in town.
We have an Intel Core 2 Duo (E6750 overclocked to 3.0GHz) computer (Windows XP Pro operating system) with 2GB of DDR2 800 RAM, a GeForce 7600GS video card, and plenty of hard drive space (internal and external). I know this isn't the best system for video editing (quad core would be better) but for my limited editing plans and DVD creation hopefully it will not be too bad?
Characteristics of a camcorder that are important in my mind right now include the following (in no particular order):
- Physical size of camcorder (prefer smaller to larger)
- Good video quality
- Excellent flip-out screen or viewfinder (or both ideally)
- Decent audio quality (external mic jack would be a nice option)
- HD capability if I want to record in HD
- Ease of transfer from camera to computer (for backup) and then to DVD
- Ability to plug camera into TV to watch what we've recorded
- Good battery life
Characteristics that are NOT important in my mind right now include the following:
- Still picture quality
- Brand
- Color of the camcorder itself
Taking all these things into consideration, I'd love to get away with spending US $1,000 or less for all the items I need (camcorder itself, extra battery, case, cables, media, editing software, etc.). That being said, I could probably stretch the budget to US $1,500 total if there's a convincing argument to be made that the extra money will be well spent.
Please help me wade through all the various decisions that I need to make like which recording media to go with (tape, hard drive, flash memory, etc.), how much optical zoom should I be looking for in a quality lens, will the included editing software be adequate for my needs, etc.
If I am missing anthing in my analysis, please don't be shy in letting me know! Like I said, I am a total noob when it comes to camcorders.
Best regards and thank you in advance for any help you can provide.
Jason

At any rate, here's my situation. My wife and I are expecting our first child at the end of January 2009. We have never owned a camcorder before, so we truly are noobs in this. The camcorder will be used for video at least 95% of the time - I have my Canon D-SLR (30D) and lens collection for still pictures.
I don't anticipate doing a lot of heavy editing. We mostly just want a video camera to capture precious moments on video for archival purposes, as well as to be able to send to friends and family (on DVDs) that are not in town.
We have an Intel Core 2 Duo (E6750 overclocked to 3.0GHz) computer (Windows XP Pro operating system) with 2GB of DDR2 800 RAM, a GeForce 7600GS video card, and plenty of hard drive space (internal and external). I know this isn't the best system for video editing (quad core would be better) but for my limited editing plans and DVD creation hopefully it will not be too bad?

Characteristics of a camcorder that are important in my mind right now include the following (in no particular order):
- Physical size of camcorder (prefer smaller to larger)
- Good video quality
- Excellent flip-out screen or viewfinder (or both ideally)
- Decent audio quality (external mic jack would be a nice option)
- HD capability if I want to record in HD
- Ease of transfer from camera to computer (for backup) and then to DVD
- Ability to plug camera into TV to watch what we've recorded
- Good battery life
Characteristics that are NOT important in my mind right now include the following:
- Still picture quality
- Brand
- Color of the camcorder itself
Taking all these things into consideration, I'd love to get away with spending US $1,000 or less for all the items I need (camcorder itself, extra battery, case, cables, media, editing software, etc.). That being said, I could probably stretch the budget to US $1,500 total if there's a convincing argument to be made that the extra money will be well spent.
Please help me wade through all the various decisions that I need to make like which recording media to go with (tape, hard drive, flash memory, etc.), how much optical zoom should I be looking for in a quality lens, will the included editing software be adequate for my needs, etc.
If I am missing anthing in my analysis, please don't be shy in letting me know! Like I said, I am a total noob when it comes to camcorders.
Best regards and thank you in advance for any help you can provide.
Jason