Good Buy, Good Choice

I moved into the DVD-camcorder scene a bit late - I think I bought this one at a point when several (other brands) cameras came out, which meant I got to take advantage of a good rebate and sale price. But that's not why I bought it. I bought it (in May 06) 1- on the recommendation of a salesman who had used several (he felt this one had the fewest drawbacks of those he'd tried) and 2- it's small and lightweight, and so am I.

I was under serious pressure, too - I bought it an hour before one of my daughter's soccer games, the last game of the season. (The team lost, but I got it on film.)

Besides its size, here's what I like about it:

-The LCD screen is excellent, and the viewfinder is good, too, so filming is comfortable, and there's no guesswork about what ends up on screen.

-The battery lasts through about 30-35 minutes of constant filming, just slightly longer than most of the mini-DV discs I've used (I like Sony's the best). Before I bought, that didn't sound like enough, but now I like it. Frankly, 20 minutes of watching my kids do anything is probably enough. (They're cute kids, but maybe not movie stars.) And, in spite of the fact that my first film is of a soccer game, I'm not making full game tapes for the team (thank goodness). On the box, however, Canon says the battery lasts 80 minutes but that it "may vary due to shooting conditions." I don't know what kind of conditions you need to double the usage that I've gotten in practice, but I'd be interested in finding out...

-The battery charges in less than two hours. (Still, I'm considering buying a second battery, especially since I tend to drain the dumb thing in the case!) It also seems to hold a charge for a couple of weeks (but not a month) if I put it away fully charged between uses.

Here are the things I don't like or would change if I could:
-THE WORST thing is that the #%&$ on/off button is practically designed to be activated when it goes into the case (which, um, I think I actually bought separately, so I guess that's my fault). Several times, I've turned it on that way, only to find out when I pull a useless camera with a dead battery out of the case. PAY ATTENTION; this is really annoying.

-And - this may sound contradictory to the previous item - the on/off button is NOT easy to activate. I have to push pretty darned hard, and it's a small button. I wonder if folks with larger hands/fingers find this challenging - maybe they use a pen to push it?

I think improvements will come in time to the microphone/sound recording features. It seems to deliver rather "tinny" sound in any situation. I do think the microphone is pretty darned good in outdoors situations, where I've had decent results even on windy days.

I have not tried any of the special effects, so look for another review if that's what you want to do.

Other stuff -
I like the Roxio software that comes with the camera; it makes copying discs (for Grandma & Grandpa, not for selling to clamoring fans) pretty easy, and fast. I haven't yet used the Digital Video Software that comes with the camera, and I don't think I will anytime soon. It has PhotoStitch, which allows you to turn still images into a "seamless" slideshow, but at least as I read in the manual, it doesn't seem to have video editing capabilities so I don't think I could splice together video segments, or delete a slow part of a "movie." (I know other software allows those things, but I don't want to pay for it, or master its usage.)