Alec Saunders SquawkBox

I’m in the market for a camcorder as a Christmas gift for Janice. Don’t worry, my dear wife doesn’t read my blog.  It will still be a nice surprise.  As usual, with any big ticket item, I spend quite a bit of time researching it on the internet.  The two best resources I’ve found are: 

1. Camcorderinfo.com provides very detailed reviews of everything from inexpensive consumer grade products to high end near professional prosumer video cameras.  I loved this site because they literally rated everything, including providing detailed video quality reports.
2. CNET’s Camcorder Reviews pages are a little less detailed than Camcorderinfo.com, but provide a user’s viewpoint on the devices.

Anyway, it looks like it’s down to the Sony HDR-SR1, or the Canon HV-10.  The Canon is a much better price, but the reviewers ding it for video problems in low light settings and confusing controls.  On the other hand, the Sony records in the new AVCHD format, and there is very little editing software available for it at the moment. I checked them both out at BestBuy yesterday, and while I couldn’t see any video problems with either, the knock against the Canon’s controls is definitely warranted.