Panasonic HDC-HS60-K

Very Impressed – Love my new camcorder. Lightweight with very good battery life. High quality playback and good on board functionality. Simple to use to the point that my kids love to use it. Size and Battery Life

Good – Going from a mini-disc camcorder to this HD camera, the picture quality was impressive, though not perfect. Given the cost (roughly $630 on eBay), it's hard to complain. The zoom is decent and it peformed well in low light areas. I like the size of the camera as it fit easily in my hand and the position of the zoom control and record button were convenient. The touch screen was small but I could still use it with my finger, rather than the provided pen thingo. The 120GB Hard drive is handy as you know you're unlikey to run out of space during your holiday. The software included is fairly user friendly and I had no major problems burning the videos to DVD. As is apparently normal with HD cameras the battery life is not great, just over an hour of recording time. Add the fact that a spare can cost around $150, that's probably the main negative for the product. Overall I think this camera is good value for money and will hopefully last as long as my old Sony mini-disc camera (8 years and counting). Size, zoom, picture, software battery life, spare battery cost