Panasonic PV-GS500 1/4.7" 1.07MP 3CCD 2.7" 123K LCD 12X Optical Zoom MiniDV Camcorder

Pros: Its the best camera you can get in its price range. Really good video quality for its price. 3CCD is a big plus. The size is pretty small, small enough to carry around and good enough to have good quality. It has true 16:9 format unlike its cousin, the GS300.

Cons: Kind of a downgrade from the GS400, but you can't find the GS400 anywhere anymore and it costs more. It also has no headphone monitor, but you can mod the AV cable to output to headphones with a 5 dollar converter. It was hard to justify spending 200 dollars more for the GS500 instead of the GS300.

Overall Review: Its not High Def but I didn't want that. I didn't want to take forever to edit a movie on my computer system. (Fairly new, core2duo) The PV-GS500 is a really good consumer camera for people who just need a camera to film really important events. If you're looking to film home made movies without spending an arm and a leg for an expensive prosumer camera, this is a pretty good choice.

Pros: Reviews of video quality are great, unfortunately haven't been able to see for myself.

Cons: Conclusion is that the firewire port on the camera is bad. Straight out of the box. I'm not looking forward to dealing with Panasonic warranty service. I will likely miss recording the birth of my twins waiting for repair. Since researching this problem I see it is quite common, I would recommend purchasing another brand.

Overall Review: None