Sorry, more advice about buying new camcorder

[doccon1]

You must all be getting really bored of jokers like me asking you about new camcorders but I know nothing about camcorders and need help and your forum seems very helpful from the posts I've read earlier.
Essentially my wife and I would like a camcorder to keep memories of the children before they rebel! We have a Windows XP computer and are reasonably competent with it but by no means experts! We have a budget of £300. Looked at Panasonic NV GS180 and VDR-D150 but don't know whether we should be looking at mini DV or DVD recording formats. Also saw VDR-D160 and have no idea what the difference is!! Basically I'm now decompensating and would welcome any suggestions.

Many thanks!!

[redsox_mark]

There have been some previous threads discussing the merits of various formats, but the short version is: At this budget miniDV still gives the best quality for the money. DVD is good if you want to shoot and play the disc immediately without needing to edit. If you are happy to edit on a PC, and quality is the most important, I’d go with DV.

Panasonic GS180 is a good choice; or the GS230 which has replaced it (and also costs around £300, web prices).

[doccon1]

Many thanks for your help.

[rojroj]

Well, I have got a DVD Cam (Hitachi DZ-MV350) and very happy with the quality.
Well, it was £500 + 3 years back, but have come down considerably.
The best part of it is that you don't have to transfer to a PC to edit (and lose quality) although it comes with editing software. The in camera editing is the best I've seen - lets you divide a scene into multiple pieces, discard the bits you don't want and then combine the rest back into one. You always get some moments which are not worth or spoils the show. Then I transfer it directly to a set top DVD Recorder.