Camcorders - Are they worth it?

[Metrobaby]

I am wondering whether it is worth getting a camcorder or not. The thought of having stacks of unwatched video footage however puts me off, but I do like the idea of being able to see one off events like dd's xmas plays etc.

Would be interested to know what others thinks.

TIA

It is fantastic to be able to record events in that way.
But get one off e-bay for a fraction of the new cost. If you don't knw what model you want do a 'camcorder review' search on google, take your pic and then look out for the previous , and tus older, model on e-bay.
As new models are being launched at an alarming and unneccesary rate, even last year's should be more than adequate, unless you want to be the next Peter Jackson.

And no you never get round to watching all of the footage but it will give you something to do once the kids have left home.

HTH

I got one for Christmas and am hoping (once I've worked out how to use it) that it will be great as long as I don't get into the habit of taping everything. My ds1's birthday was last week and it was lovely to have footage of him opening his presents, and it would have been nice to have it for his school nativity play (he was a very cute shepherd...). My dad had one for years and kept sending me tapes with hours of his wife and their children doing nothing. Deadly boring. Am hoping this will be enough of an incentive to stop me doing the same.

Also, the one I got is digital so I can put it all onto my computer and email clips and could also put stuff onto DVDs. It also takes digital still photos. I still haven't worked most of this stuff out yet, but I think because it does so much, the versatility makes it worth it.

why not just a digital camera wiht a short video facilty - we harldy ever use ours

We have videos of the kids going back 15 years - before we bought one we hired one for a weekend every few months, so we did get a lot of what would be quite boring to anyone else (like what ponygirl's dad sends!), but to the kids themselves it's still fascinating, and to us too - because you do forget what they were like, how they behaved and sounded and looked, even with photos.

So as well as the special occasions, birthdays and holidays and plays, do also get some routine everyday stuff for later. (If you can do it without them knowing you're there it's even better! )

By camcorder - do you mean with a conventional video tape inside? Or a digital one? We have a digicam (think that's what it is!) and it's great. However, wish now we'd forked out the extract to have a memory stick so that we could use it as a digital camera (still photos) as well. Our camera can take digital photos but you have to 'find' them within the miles of film you take before you can look at them. This involves downloading the whole film onto the pc (for editing/ so you can reuse the tape etc) which is far too terrifying to do. If you have a memory stick you can take a digital photo and it is stored seperately in the stick, which you presumably take out and download onto pc. Having said all that, probably the new digicams have another way of doing it and this info is now obsolete...

Message withdrawn

Oh it's so worth it. I've got DD's first attempt at crawling on camera, and a lovely bit of film where she's just giggling and playing with her teddies, and another bit of her making a cake with her dad. It's fab.