OT: Hand held video camera: any recommendations for compact, versatile, simple

[Osteomata]

Looking for some recommendations for an inexpensive, compact versatile video camera for my wife. She is a big photobug, but finds the video feature on her Canon DSLR nearly useless since it only works on certain high speed flash cards and takes up all the space. She had a flip and hated it, something about being an overhyped peace of garbage I think were the words. So... anyone out there got any recommendations? Would love to take advantage of Labor Day sales and purchase tomorrow.

Oh, and on this forum I should make it clear: this is not for taking underwater.

 

[mlivvy]

I actually sold my camcorder because I found the HD video on my canon dslr to be pretty good. But, for basic shooting it does take up sd card space so you need a larger card and when you zoom you can hear the zooming motor in your videos. My cell phone also takes nice HD videos so I purchased a 16gb card for it. I don't recommend cell phones tho since the battery drained and shut off right when our baby came during birth.

I would recommend any samsung hd camcorder or the toshiba camileo. I think with most digital cams and cell phones offering pretty good HD video, camcorders might go obsolete.

 

[roblack]

I did a bit of research on handheld HD cams around the end of 2010, and went with a Canon Vixia HF M300. I love it. Has removable memory, which I recommend over the models with built in memory. Takes great pics too, and the video is excellent for the money. There may be a newer version now.

 

[blackthunda77]

all the videos i post on here are done with the kodal zi8. im pretty happy with it. you can see more of the videos at youtube.com/jcfaur