Great little camcorder!

We used to have an old 8mm Sony camcorder, which worked great for our oldest boy, but with a new baby on the way, we wanted something that would seamlessly communicate with our DVD burner so we could share our movies with family members who live far away and won't get to see him grow up.

This camcorder feels great in the hand. It is soooo much lighter and easier to carry than our old one. The buttons are easy to use and find without looking once you get used to it, which is nice when you're keeping your attention to what you're filming. The picture is very clear (again, much better than our old one) and really looks nice on the DVDs we burn. It plugs right into our DVD burner and works like a dream.

The widescreen is a great option, especially with more and more people buying HDTVs. The LCD screen is big and bright, even in sunlight.

The LED light does help out in dark places, but it is not nearly as effective as the large incandescent light our old Sony had (which is really the only drawback so far). It does not have nightvision, either, but we rarely ever used that, anyways. The battery life is not great, but we have an inverter in our car so we can charge it on the road, if need be. I would recommend one of those as well for laptops, battery chargers, etc.,

The MiniDVs work well. Definitely easier to transport than old 8mm tapes, and MiniDV camcorders are, on the whole, much less expensive than DVD camcorders, and the tapes hold more. MiniDV will be around for quite a long time, so if you're looking for a decent camcorder now and don't want to spend a mint on the newer technology, this will work for years to come. You won't be dissapointed with this this affordable ($250!!!), effective, camcorder.