Witch Flip camcorder is the best to get?

Please help me decide which camcorder is better?

• Please help i m going to buy a camcorder witch one shold i get the Hard Disk Drive (HDD) or the MiniDVD/ or MiniDV or flash memory one i just needed to record my family and my 2 baby girls..

• Answer:

  Better for what? Connecting to a computer for editing and uploading and video quality? 1st choice: MiniDV tape - this assumes your computer has a firewire port or you are willing/able to add one if it does not. Do not reuse the tapes - they are the archive. 2nd choice: Flash memory - this assumes you are OK with having to convert the video to a format your computer can deal with after copying the video files over USB. MPEG StreamClip works well. You need to figure out an archive process/method. 3rd choice: Same video file types and archive issues as flash memory. Add "what are your plans to get the video when the camera is broken (dropped), stolen or lost (video not yet transferred to computer. With flash memory and minDV tape, at least you are out just the card/tape in the camcorder - not possibly hours of video that was so conveniently stored on the camcorder's hard drive. NEVER choose: consumer standard definition DVD based camcorders. They barely make useful doorstops. High definition consumer DVD camcorders are almost acceptable if you have a way to playback the AVCHD MTS files (BluRay deck or PS3) and your computer infrastructure can deal with the SVCD files - and if you don't mind the short (20 minutes) record time of the little discs. I would suggest not going this route. BEFORE you select a storage media for the camcorder, set a budget. Then see what fits in the budget. up to about $250: Toys or pocket cams. Poor low-light because of small lenses and imaging chips, typically no image stabilization. Mostly highly compressed video stored on flash memory. Some claim "high definition" and store to .MOV QuickTime files that may have issues with your computing environment (conversion required). None recommended. Up to about $700: Entry level consumer camcorder. Lenses and imaging chips are a little larger, but low-light behavior is better than the toys/pocket cams - still not so good. Canon ZR series and FS series are worth a look. Up to about $1,300: mid to high consumer cams. Real high definition. HDV on tape is less compressed than AVCHD/MTS (less compression = better video quality). Lenses and imaging chips are larger... the Canon HF, HF-S series, HV series (HV30 or HV40) are the front contenders. Sony is missing the boat by putting most of their eggs in the hard disc drive basket. The HDR-CX12 is worth a look. Panasonic is trying to be all things to all people with their hybrids - they are doing nothing for anyone. $2,200 and up... Jump to prosumer and prograde... nearly all are miniDV tape based. The exceptions are Sony HVR-Z7U (uses compact flash) and Panasonic AG-HVX200 (uses P2 cards). All record to DV/HDV format. There are some Panny low-end cams in the pro category that collect AVCHD to flash memory - they are in the wrong category - should be in high-end consumer. $6,000 and up... Then the jump to higher end prograde gear from Sony and Panasonic - also tape based but generally record to DVCPRO/HD format (Panny) and SDCAM/HDCAM/XDCAM formats (Sony).