I recently decided to buy a new camcorder. I didn't want to buy a really expensive one because I mostly wanted it to make home videos of my kids. Of course, I also wanted to get the best camcrder for my money.  

After lots and lots of research I decided on the Sony DCR-DVD610 DVD Handycam Camcorder with 40x Optical Zoom and I've been incredibly pleased with my choice.  The this camcorder is reasonably priced - you can always find it under $400, and I purcahsed mine for $299.  

The things that I like most about this camera are:

1. The image stabilization system is great for me, since I always seem to have a hard time holding my camera steady enough to get a decent picture. 

2.  I really like the nightshot system that this camera includes. It makes it easy to shoot video at night or in dark rooms. It's much more than I'd expect from a camera at this price point. 

3. This camcorder also has a scene selection option - which allows you to choose different shooting scenarios, such as sunrise, sunset, landscape, portrait, candlelight, fireworks, etc. and then adjusts accordingly to get the best video for whatever you are taping. 

4. The quick-on feature is my absolute favorite thing about this Sony Camcorder. My last camcorder took 30 seconds to a minute to boot up and start recording so I was constantly missing things that I really wanted to tape. This camcorder has a quick-on feature that has you taping in literally seconds.  

5. It comes with DVD-format recording. I'm not  that great with technology, but you can take the mini-DVD right from the Camcorder and put it into your DVD player and it plays. Works for me! 

6. It's also reasonably easy to upload videos to the computer, although you will need a firewire and a firewire port on your computer to upload them. Most newer computers have these.  

Overall, I've been extremely pleased wtih my purchase. I think it's probably the best camcorder on the market for the price. I've been pleased with Sony products for many years and this is no exception.