Shopping Camcorders, what's good?

[mrw]

I tried the search function and didn't find much relevant to my needs. I'm looking for something less than $450. with some manual adjust ability along the lines of my digital Cannon A610, size is important. I want to carry it skiing and traveling in a 007 like shoulder holster.
DVD or mini cassette is OK, picture quality is most important and I'm thinking DVD would be easier to edit with my laptop. I fully admit I am a video jong

I have looked at the Sony DCR HC32 and the Cannon ZR400 the Sony is smaller, lighter and has stabilization, The Cannon seems to put out a little better pic

[DePierre]

canons have been good for me..sonys havent. i say go with the canon

[focus]

DVD cams haven't caught up w/ tapes as far as quality goes...and prolly never will. something about the compression involved in putting it on the DVD...? long and short of it seems to be you pay a lot more for a similar quality DVD camcorder.

i'm a jong about this too....but we just got a new sony dcr-dvd403, which is a pretty pimp little camera...and i really wish we'd gotten a similarly priced tape or HD cam -- especially after i found out the sony dvd cams don't support macs AT ALL.

[iskibc]

Panasonic GS150 3 CCD will work for what you are looking for. Search online and find the best deal on this cam. It will not disappoint. Go with a DV cam, noting else, unless you want to spend big bucks.