christmas present suggestions please

[cuewoz1]

I am looking at buying the girlfriend a digital camcorder for christmas and would like some advice please.
It just has to be a big brand name have a firewire digital output for transfering to a PC to make a DVD of the footage, be fairly small, and come in my budget of £200-£400.
I like some of the sony models but there are that many I just need to know whats best for the money.
Thanks in advance

[tomson]

I'm in a similar situation. Been looking at a Canon MV600... seems to do everything I/she'd need. Only downside seems to be no way of putting the edited vid back onto the cam but that aint a biggy.

[Kronenbourg]

I just bought my wife a Sony TRV-14 for Christmas.

Had a quick play (well, you have to dont you!) and it seems spot on. Comes with firewire out, although you need to buy a firewire cable, so you can download to your PC (you would need to upgrade to a TRV-19 to upload back to the camcorder, but I decided to spend the extra 70 quid the 19 would cost me on a new DVD-RW for me so I can burn the movies onto DVD instead).

I have seen it for £326 at
http://www.prcdirect.co.uk/

[melliott1963]

Go for the Sony, I'm sure you won't be disappointed. A word of warning about the Canon MV600. I too liked the look of this when I was considering, but I was put off by a lot of reviews that comment on the noisy tape mechanism which, in turn, gets picked up by the on-board microphone and is apparently quite noticable and not just in quiet situations.

[tomson]

Originally posted by melliott1963
A word of warning about the Canon MV600. I too liked the look of this when I was considering, but I was put off by a lot of reviews that comment on the noisy tape mechanism which, in turn, gets picked up by the on-board microphone and is apparently quite noticable and not just in quiet situations.

Hmmm just been reading about that... does the MV600i suffer the same?
Was hoping to stick with Canon as I can use my digicam batteries in it. Might have to reconsider tho.

[melliott1963]

I think about the only real difference between the MV600 and the MV600i is that the MV600i has DV in as well as out (the MV600 only has DV out). Other than that, they're basically the same and so will both suffer to the same degree.

Apparently, it's not just the tape mechanism that gets picked up by the mic, but also any movements your hands make when handling the camera.

You could always go to Jessops and ask to have a go at filming something, and then see (hear?) what the results are like for yourself, but so many reviews have pointed out this noise problem, that it's probably best to steer clear.

[cuewoz1]

Thanks for the advice.
I have gone for the sony!