Great Value - Good camera for the Money!

We are having our first child next month and so I did alot of research for a new, but reasonably priced camcorder. This will be my 3rd camcorder in 20 years (the prior ones being Sony 8mm).

Use:
The Canon Elura 100 is VERY easy to use. It has an "easy" setting which is basically is "point and start shooting" video. The camera will do just about everything automatically for you short of dropping the tape into the camcorder! The easy setting seems to do a pretty good job most times. For more difficult lighting and indoor video situations, the camera does offer enough manual overrides to help compensate and improve your results.

Ergonomics & LCD screen:
For a guy, my hands are average in size and the feel of the camcorder is compact in the hand with a sense of some quality. Someone with large hands may find the camera harder to hold and use though. Try before you buy!
All of the buttons are placed pretty well.
The joystick on the back works good, and the screen icons and camera settings on the LCD are fairly intuitive to use - ESPECIALLY if this isn't your first camcorder. Though, for first time users, their is a "quick guide" to get them going in short order, the manual is also VERY well documented.
The LCD screen is very sharp and nice to look at.
We rarely use the viewfinder do to its awkward design (no big deal really since we use the screen most times).
A nice feature is the built in lens cover - however, it would be nice if it closed automatically when the camera was turned off. Few cameras in this price point do that however.

Features:
Format:
I chose mini-DV for its better quality over recordable DVD, and also because it records to DV-AVI format. Most video editing software requires the video to use this format. Tapes are nice and small, easy to find at most stores, and very inexpensive when purchased on sale (as low as 3 bucks per tape). Each tape will hold upto 60 minutes in best quality video.

16:9 Widescreen recording - this camera really does shoot TRUE 16:9 widescreen video. It does not use a stretching technique, or throw black bars around a 4:3 (regular screen size) picture and say its widescreen like MANY other camcorders do. If you want a camera that takes widescreen video, DO YOUR RESEARCH about this before you buy and be sure the camera "RECORDS TRUE Widescreen" video. As of this writing, there are very few cameras in this price point that shoot true Widescreen. This was a VERY important feature for me.

Lense - 20x optical zoom lense is plenty good! The digital zoom is near useless though because of camera shake. Almost all video cameras exhibit this anyway.
The camera does have electronic image stablization to prevent camera shake, and it works well while used in optical mode (99% of video you shoot will use optical mode). Digital zoom is a marketing gimic as far as I am concerned, and there are few practical uses for it.
Canon is known for good lenses and the one in the Elura 100 doesn't disapoint. The lense provides a nice sharp crisp picture. The zoom is variable speed as well, allowing you to quickly or slowly (and any speed in between) zoom in on your subject.

Video Quality:
The Elura 100 takes excellent, sharp quality pics most of the time. However, the picture does get alittle grainy when taking video in darker rooms. Either turn on some lights, or put the camera into manual mode and adjust the camera setting for nightime video taking to improve the quality. I am betting that most people reporting alot of problems in this area are keeping the camera in the "easy mode" when shooting video in dark rooms.
Owners should consider reading the owners manual and learn how to use the pre-programmed shooting modes. They are easy to set and do improve video quality when used.
The camera does have a built in LED light. It does provide some mild improvement in dim light when the subject is no more than 6 feet away.

Audio Quality:
Audio is in stereo & generally good. I was concerned when I read about others having issues with motor noise being picked up. I do have some minor motor noise in my videos when its silent or very very quiet. But I dont find it to be disturbing. I certainly dont find it to be as bad as some others have reported. However, compared to my older Sony's, there is a noticable difference. Silent video on my Sonys were completely silent. If you are seeking that from your camcorder, either try before you buy to see if you find it disturbing or consider a different camera.
There is a jack to add an optional boom mic (no included).

Snap Shot Picture Quality:
The camera has an SD memory card slot that allows this camera to double as a digital camera. It rates as a 1 MegaPixel. The pictures are ok at best for "in a pinch" picture taking. Personally however, I buy a camcorder to take video, not to take snapshots. Most camcorders dont make for good picture taking. If you want to take good snap shot pictures, stick to a dedicated digital camera...they are designed for the job and are inexpensive these days.

Battery & Startup:
Battery power and length is excellent. It is the excellent lithiom ion type of battery. I shot just over 2 1/2 hours worth of video using the LCD before the battery needed to be recharged.
The camera starts up VERY quickly and is ready to use in a matter of 2 seconds.

Connections and Wires:
There are two ways to connect the camera to a PC -
USB2 - use the enclosed USB cord for downloading digital snap shots from the SD card.
Firewire - used for downloading video to your PC. Unfortunately, Canon doesn't include a Firewire with the camera. Luckily, these are inexpensive and available at your favorite computer retailer. Your PC must have a IEEE1394 Firewire jack in it to download video. If it doesn't, you can buy one online for about $15 and is a synch to install in your computer.
The firewire allows you to quickly download your videos to your computer. Note that DV-AVI video takes about 13GB of hard drive space PER HOUR of video. Be sure you have enough space on your harddrive for all your video.

Included Software:
The included Canon software is for snapshot picture editing - not for video. Because of this, I did not install the software as I dont plan to the use the video camera for digital still pictures.

Some other things worth noting:
The camera does not come with a arm/neck strap.
The camera does not come with a DV tape - so be sure to buy one with the camera.
The camera does not come with a Firewire (required when downloading video to the PC).
The camera does not come with an SD card (used for digital stills).