I just picked up a Sanyo VPC-GH4 Full HD 1080 Camcorder with 10X Dual Range Zoom, and 2 spare battery packs with charger. The cam was $129.00 and the battery charger and spare batteries were $19.99. I picked up a Transcend 16GB Class 10 SDHC Card for $28.00 also. -- link -- Just some of the features: Full HD 1080, 60i Video (1920 x 1080) 10 Megapixel Digital Photos 10x Dual Range Zoom Video Embedded Software for Sharing Videos/Photos 5x Optical Zoom Photo Lithium Ion batteries (approx. 1 hour of recording) Video/image stabilization Support more than 64GB SD cards Fast start up time This setup should grant me extended filming when I am on hikes, and the extended battery life will be most helpful. I also won't have to use the old dvd cam, which is nice, but not practical. The lighter Sanyo package should prove to be a step up, and it didn't break the wallet. I am not looking for super high quality, just clear video with adequate sound. I could have spent a lot more to get a whole list of features, but I am no expert film maker, and let's be honest, for the money it's a very good buy. I can upload directly to YouTube or other sites, but I like to edit my video first. Still, the option is nice to have in case I do need it. I usually edit my video with Sony Vegas Movie Studio Platinum Pro (9) software, and I record sound in studio with a Snowflake Blue microphone. Using the SD card technology will enable me to simply plug the SD card into the laptop and import directly to the video editing software instead of finalizing my dvd discs and popping them into my drive and importing that way. Also, I won't have to buy any more dvd's for the old camcorder. Additional product review coming soon as I field test. This is the DVD camcorder I have been currently using: --- link --- The battery life of the Panasonic DVD cam is very short: about 20 minutes at best with the 750 mAh batteries, and I use 4 of them as standard kit. The mini DVD's are only 4GB, and can record 20-30 minutes of video. I have used RW DVD's, but they cannot be reused since I have to "finalize" the disc prior to import to my editing software. In order for me to finalize every disc, I had to unplug the battery pack, plug in a separate power cord, plug that into the proprietary charger and into the power supply, then wait for the disc to finalize and then eject it to be transferred to my dvd player. What a waste of time and effort. I am going to like switching to SD.
Nice camera. We've got a flip video HD that quick and convenient. Not many bells and whistles, but it takes a nice video. No stills, though, bummer.
