[anroob]

This is a bit short notice, but I have been delegated to pick out a Birthday prezzie camcorder for my daughter tomorrow from Argos/Curry's.

It will be used mainly for her baby due in two months.

As we all know, funds are limited these days, so it's at the low end of the market (£120-£160)

Choice is between a Canon or Samsung MiniDV and a Samsung dvdr.

All seem very similar in spec. but could anyone point out any pro's and con's between the two recording formats.

[A n d r e w]

The rule of thumb is that mini-DV will beat mpeg-2 recorded to DVD, hard drive, or memory card for image quality because mini-DV is less compressed.

The advantage of the hard drive or memory card camcorders is that you can (usually) just drag-and-drop your clips across to a PC or laptop for viewing. DVD camcorders are another kettle of fish - I'd avoid them if I were you. They seem convenient at first glance, but there are just too many complaints about them.

If you plan or she plans on doing any editing, then you'll need a FireWire port on your / her computer to transfer video from a mini-DV camcorder.

Given that the camcorder is likely to be used primarily indoors (with both the baby and winter on the way), make sure you get something with a decent-sized sensor - as big as you can afford, anyway (and don't get caught out by the fractions involved: 1/4 is bigger than 1/6!).

Good luck!

[senu]

Dont let anyone tell you a MINIDV tape camcorder is "old analogue"
It is digital , tried and tested good quality and and once the data on tape is on the PC it is pretty much identical ( even easier for hi def) to manipulate as any from HDD or SD card