If you're not keen on fiddling with A/V cabling or video editing, most camcorder formats can be annoying. You either need to plug the camcorder directly into your TV to watch what you've shot, or transfer footage to a PC.

Fulfils its promise of Blu-ray player compatibility, but loses out on features and image quality to the competition

At around the same size as a point-and-shoot digital camera, and under 300g, the HDR-TG3 is incredibly portable. You can drop it into a pocket comfortably, which isn't something you can say for many other HD camcorders. Our current A List choice, the Cano...

Wonderfully portable, but this comes at the expense of clarity.

The AVCHD format has been taking over the high definition camcorder market - despite the older tape-based HDV still being capable of better image quality. But now Canon has launched a camcorder which could put up a real challenge.

Great image quality, plenty of enthusiast features, and the small size only Flash memory allows - all for a very reasonable price.

The term high definition has become accepted by the mass market, at least when it comes to TVs. But in the world of camcorders, HD has still been very expensive until just recently.

A good price for an HD camcorder, but poor design makes it an awkward device to use one-handed.

In the past couple of years, Canon has held back from new camcorder formats, but that hasn't prevented it from producing some splendid products. Canon's HV20 (web ID: 125305) is currently the best sub--1,500 HDV camcorder on the market and the HG10 - its...

Canon gets it right with its first hard-disk-based camcorder.

After only a couple of years, the tape-based HDV format is beginning to hum its swansong - it was, after all, a transitional move between DV and high definition. Sony is still releasing HDV products, though, and the HDR-HC9E is the latest in a line of inc...

Sony's characteristically good image quality, but not quite enough manual features to compete with more enthusiast-oriented HDV models.

Impressed as we were by the HDC-SD5 a few months back, it was still a surprise to see it become the top-selling HD model that it has. Now, fewer than six months later, Panasonic has brought out a new version: called the HDC-SD9, it takes the solid basis o...

Some key improvements over the HDC-SD5 make this an enticing pocket HD camcorder prospect.

The distinctive pistol-grip Xacti camcorders have been around since 2003, when we reviewed the Sanyo VPC-C1. The video quality of the original model wasn't quite good enough to justify its high price, but things have since changed dramatically.

Image quality doesn't come close to an SLR, but the inclusion of HD video recording makes it a great point-and-shoot option.

JVC's Everio GZ-MC100 (web ID: 67022) brought the hard disk camcorder to the masses back in 2005. But the company has been a bit late to the party with high definition. Sony was already on its second generation when JVC released its first foray, the GZ-HD...

A great value camcorder that's capable of some decent results.

Buying a camcorder is increasingly confusing. Not only do you have to choose between standard and high definition, there are at least four different types of recording format available. Panasonic's HDC-SD5 opts for the relatively new AVCHD, recording to S...

A dinky AVCHD camcorder, with respectable video performance and a reasonable price.