Record on disc or flash card-your choice.

Versitility is key here - records to SDHC and DVD; 3-second preroll recording.

Some contrast issues in very bright or medium light.

Quality build, stylish looks, slight flaws.

Rock-solid; good optical image stabilization; "easy" mode; great video quality.

Awkwardly placed zoom button; stop button delay. Very slight artifacting.

Old-school HDV shines and stumbles at the same time.

buttah-smooth video, crisp and vivid in bright light.

Cheap-feeling plastic, stuck with miniDV tapes.

The HDC-SD1 was the smallest and lightest camcorder we tested, and the easiest one to use. It offers few buttons to confuse you and no viewfinder, but wait a minute�€"that�€™s a frickin�€™ 3-inch viewscreen, which seems huge compared to the others�€™ 2.7-

Small, light, easy to use. Super-sharp res, kickin' image stabilization.

Low-light a tad grainy; slightly bluish video with auto white balance.

The most kick-ass characteristic of this cam is its awesome resolution, the sharpest of all the cameras we tested. But its low-light performance was a bit grainy, and its room-lit video revealed a few subtle noisy spots�€"nothing bad enough to fret over,

Cheap HDV? It's no longer a pipe dream with this bargain-priced high-definition video camera. For a mere $1500, you can shoot video at HDTV resolution!

1941 Incredibly small; one of the lowest priced HDV cams available.

The Thin Red Line A bit too small, quirky mic placement.

Like a mutant being's twisted genetic structure, Sanyo brings us a hybrid camera that's actually worth a damn.