I am looking for some advice on buying a digital camcorder.
We are expecting our first baby in a few weeks time so I thought it would be an ideal time to get into the camcorder thing .
I am looking to spend upto about £400 - £500 but obviosly cheaper if it will do the job .
Any advice on this would be great
Thankyou
Wayne........

[Iain Shields]

Hi Wayne, I noticed you hadn't had a reply to this by any of the more expirenced camcorder users, being a newbie at this myself I can tell you that I got a Panasonic NV-DS29 digital camcorder last year and have been very happy with it, it gives very good pictures (especially outdoors) and good sound quality, it has a decent fold out screen and isn't "that" heavy (it's weight is distributed quite evenly while in the hand), you can get it even cheaper than your budget now if you look around but I'd advise going for the next model up with digital out AND in which are maybe £50 more (the nv-ds29 has digital out only) this is very usefull if you maybe want to get into computer editing as you get a bit more experienced and want to make a few home movies...
Do a search of the forum and you'll find other makes and models that people have thought are good and you'll also pick up quite a few good tips... don't forget some extra tapes and maybe an extra battery (the one you get with the camera normally only lasts for an hour between charging while filming with the screen in use. Hope this helps mate, oh, and congrats on soon being a dad

Regards,
Iain.