The camcorder question...

So J and I have been discussing the pros and cons of getting a camcorder of some sort to further document our impending offspring. We've found this question to be frightfully difficult, so I'll post a brief history of the conundrum, along with the options we are investigating, and ask you, my loyal viewer(s), to comment and help me pick something out.

First, a little back story. Janie has many amazing powers, amongst them the ability to win door prizes and raffles. She has a long history of this sort of behavior, and I no longer question it, I just try to take her to events featuring such games of 'chance' in expectation of the loot to follow. At a work event, she walked out with a copy of Avid DV, a more than one thousand dollar software package for editing digital video. Well, with such a fancy piece of software, we felt obliged to obtain a camcorder up to the task. After much research, we spent upwards of a thousand dollars on a Sony Mini-DV camcorder. It was small, when compared to what I was used to when it came to camcorders, which in my mind were large, shoulder fired rigs, but by no means pocketable.

Unfortunately, this left it in an awkward position. Our dreams of taking it with us on vacations to add a new media to our trip documentation were soon smashed, when lugging around yet another bag of gear just felt too touristy for me to deal with. That, and Avid practically requires some specialized skills to use with anything approaching proficiency. Easy, it is not. Between those two issues, the camcorder was rarely used, until we lost track of it. It may be in our house right now. We just don't know. It's been years since we've seen it.

Now, with the baby due in not much more than a month, our interest in camcorder tech has waxed full once more. And with a baby comes diaper bags. And since we'll be lugging diaper bags everywhere anyway, we've suddenly got a spot to store the camcorder where it will be available where and when we need it. In addition, with flash memory cheap and effective, camcorder sizes have dropped. No more must one deal with magnetic tapes, a technology that feels dated despite it's advantages. So, here are the camcorder's we're looking at.

First, we have the Flip MinoHD and Flip UltraHD. Both are pocketable, not even requiring space in the diaper bag. Both record to internal flash memory at 720p resolution. They're cheap. These are all pros. The big con for me is the lack of image stabilization. These are basically webcams that have been put into a portable housing. Great for shooting quick and easy videos, but the quality will always lag behind more dedicated hardware. Pictures of both devices are below.

So, that leaves us with something a bit more substantial, both in features and cost. And the device I keep coming back to is the Canon Vixia HF10.

Obviously, this model is a much more traditional camcorder, but it's still flash memory based. It comes with 16 gigs of internal memory, twice any of the Flips, plus an SDHC slot, allowing us to expand upon that easily. It is probably overkill for us, but the the gadget freak in me would rather have unused features than to ever be disappointed in their lack. It's considerably larger than the other options, and pricier to boot. But it records in full HD (1080), includes a real optical zoom, image stabilization, etc. It's a real camcorder. But here's where I get stuck. Do I need a real camcorder?

And finally, there's the cheapest option of all. The movie mode function on my five year old Canon still digicam. It's not HD, but it works, and it's cheap.

So, for the few of you who've lasted through what's undoubtedly the longest post this blog has ever seen, what do you think? Please comment below and let me know. Lord knows, I need the help.