When the first grandchild in my family arrived, my parents felt it would be a good idea to have a digital camcorder handy to capture all of the moments of birth, first steps, and so on, of the grandchildren. They ended up purchasing a Sony High Definition Digital Camcorder (80GB Hard Drive) from Best Buy for $600. This turned out to be about middle of the line for similar camcorders by Sony, which ranged from $160 to $1,000. A camcorder with a hard drive is a step up from the old magnetic tape camcorders that constantly required switching of tapes and the need to carry around blank tapes. Also, the old tape camcorders tended to wear out batteries more due to having more moving parts. On this camera, both still and video images are stored on a hard drive and can then be transferred to a computer for DVD burning.

The camera comes with a battery (although it's recommended to have at least one spare battery as well), an AC wall charger, software and a user manual. It's also recommended that the owner purchase a carrying case for the camera, which can break if dropped or stored somewhere where it might get knocked over. The camera's LCD monitor is crisp, though it is required that the user must use it to shoot video, as opposed to a viewfinder which consumes less battery energy. The camera can be set for a variety of lighting situations, and special effects such as fades and transitions can be programmed into the video directly from the camera.

The camera requires the use of its software to transfer videos from the camera to a computer, thus it is not a true plug and play device. However, the USB 2 interface is extremely fast and burning to DVD is quick and easy with the included software.
This camera has been quite useful to my family and has never given any problems. It is a reliable camera, well-built and compact for easy carrying. We borrowed it for our honeymoon, and the videos we took of Hawaii were simply gorgeous. I'd recommend this camera to anyone.