Canon HG10It's been a longish wait, but Canon will finally premiere its first hard-disk based camcorder this October, the AVCHD-compatible HG10. Based on the innards and lens of the HV20, the HG10 nevertheless uses an almost completely different ...

Join me, if you will, along the slow march toward the obsolescence of tape in video. We've definitely got a long road ahead of us, but it's fun to notice how much camcorders have changed already. On the one hand, tapeless camcorders such as Sony's ...

Excellent video and performance ; impressive still photos for a camcorder ; adequate manual controls ; docking station included

No wind filter ; USB on dock only, not on camcorder ; doesn't include Mini HDMI cable ; no viewfinder

As the flash-memory-based equivalent of the HDR-SR7, the Sony Handycam HDR-CX7 serves up the same pleasing performance and quality as its hard-drive cousin.

Hard-drive camcorders have been slower to catch on than I would've thought. Sure, they cost a bit more than their DVD- or tape-based equivalents, but the convenience of having such a large storage capacity--and not having to deal with tape--make them ...

Combining the simplicity of SD recording, a roomy 30GB hard drive, a long zoom, and pleasing image quality, the SDR-H18 is a good choice for a standard-definition, hard-drive camcorder.

One advantage of using flash memory cards as a recording medium in camcorders is that they facilitate smaller designs. The body of Panasonic's 1.1-pound HDC-SD1, which records high-definition 1,440x1,080 AVCHD video to SD cards, is a mite smaller than ...

A solid SD-based camcorder, the Panasonic HDC-SD1 nevertheless suffers from a few performance issues and an annoying design.

JVC Everio GZ-HD7As many camcorder manufacturers have discovered, three low-resolution sensors can sometimes take you a lot farther than a single high-resolution sensor. Unfortunately, while that may have been true for a standard-definition world, it ...

Nice manual features ; attractive design ; high-quality audio ; low-noise, low-light video

Ineffectual optical stabilizer ; needs a built-in ND filter ; some horizontal jitter and stuttering during playback ; low-resolution video ; sad battery life

If this camcorder cost $500, we'd give it a much higher rating. But for its quadruple-digit price, we expect far better performance and video quality from the JVC Everio GZ-HD7.

JVC continues its line of Everio hard drive camcorders with the GZ-MG555. Equipped with a single 5-megapixel sensor and a 10x zoom lens, the MG555 is the highest-end standard-definition Everio camera currently on the market. It isn't JVC's top ...

The JVC Everio GZ-MG555 hard-drive camcorder has lots of useful controls and takes decent still photos ; its neutral-density filter can be handy when shooting in bright light

Sluggish focus ; expensive

The JVC Everio GZ-MG555 hard-drive camcorder offers lots of control over your videos--and its photos look nice--but its steep price has us reaching for the Pause button.

Last year, Pure Digital Technologies put out a simple plug-and-play video camera called the Point & Shoot Video Camcorder that featured a hideaway USB connector and built-in software that made viewing and sharing your videos incredibly easy. At the ...

RCA has improved its Small Wonder lightweight video camera with a few design tweaks, the addition of an SD/MMC card slot, better built-in software, and a lower street price. With its nifty hideaway USB connector, EZ201 makes it very easy to capture ...

Video quality is still pretty mediocre ; not Mac compatible ; 2x zoom is digital, not optical

While its video quality doesn't nearly measure up to that of a true digital camcorder, RCA's affordable Small Wonder EZ201 will appeal to technophobes looking for an idiot-proof way to quickly share video clips with friends and family.

At a glance infoSize matters, and both big and small camcorders have their own places in the world. A huge expensive camcorder like the Panasonic AG-HVX200 will produce amazing footage, but it's just not the best choice for every occasion. If you're ...

Decent video quality ; compact, easy-to-tote-around design ; hard drive is convenient for both playback and editing

No viewfinder ; terrible for low-light shooting

This compact camcorder offers decent video quality in adequate lighting, plus it offers the convenience of a hard drive.

Unless you want to make the leap to high-definition footage, the Panasonic VDR-D310 is the most high-end Panasonic DVD camcorder you can get. Considering that the company's high-def DVD camcorder, the HDC-DX1, retails for a good $300 more, the VDR ...

The Panasonic VDR-D310 produces good-looking home movies without much hassle.

Want to know a secret? Not all products are made to be the best. In fact, most are made to satisfy a specific target audience. In the case of Panasonic's VDR-D210, it looks like the company's aiming for people who primarily shoot video in auto mode ...

As a relatively inexpensive DVD camcorder with solid, though not remarkable, performance, the Panasonic VDR-D210 is a decent choice for video snapshooters.