Need Camcorder recommendations

Hardware and technical stuff
1

My priorities are:

  1. Long battery life
  2. Low hassle (USB upload rather than disks, etc.)
  3. Picture quality, zoom, etc.
  4. Decent IR range pickup
  5. Feature set

Anyone have a good/bad experience?

H.

2

I have a camcorder from the Canon ZR line (their basic consumer level product) and have been happy with it. It’s probably not very hassle free (it uses mini-dv tapes) but if the quality of that product is any indication of the other Canon products, I’d check out their other consumer level equipment.

3

Doing some thread search, I see that two features are pretty desireable:

  1. 3CCD
  2. Deep optical zoom

But looking at the offerings, the two seem mutually exclusive. Is there a reason that 3CCD cameras seem limited to 10x optical zoom?

H.

4

http://www.camcorderinfo.com/content/Canon-Elura-100-Camcorder-Review.htm

Canon Elura

True widescreen
Analog to digital so you can transfer all your old video tapes to digital then upload and burn to DVD
Light
For the price, these features make it a great entry level camera…heck, even a mid level one at that. I love the quality, my battery seems to last a long time and the Mini DV (small tape) format is pretty darn good quality.

5

What’s your budget? Have you looked at the SONY and PANASONIC HD cameras?

6

I’d like to keep it in the low range, 500$ or less.

H.