which camcorder - advice please

[firemaiden]

Right, we've finally succumbed and would like to buy a camcorder to take videos of our two little cuties. These videos would preferably be downloadable onto discs/the pc and the camcorder and downloading would be very easily worked for technodopes like myself. Any advice please on makes or even just what to look for? Thanks.

bump

somebody must have one? surely?

I recently bought a Sony DCRHC96E mini-dv camcorder from Amazon. It is fantastic, really easy to use. It tapes onto a rerecordable mini-tape. You can download this to your computer, edit if needed and burn onto a disc. It also takes very good photos. If I hadn't bought that one, I would have got the Sony DCR-DVD404E DVD Camcorder.

Thanks, that sounds just what I need. Hadn't thought of buying from Amazon. What is the difference between the one you eventually went for and the one you might have got - ie it a size issue?

The one I went for taped onto little tapes, whereas the DVD one tapes onto a mini-DVD. The reason I bought mine from Amazon was because it isn't available in the shops, whereas the DVD camcorder is more widely available. They are both very good camcorders, the only differenc being that the mini-DV is easier to edit(if you want to), if you don't prob. easier to get the DVD one-but check first(ask at the store) that you can use the DVD on your DVD player.