Ellen, I purchased the Sony mini DVD201 last July and I am very happy with the camera in terms of ease of use and portability to Sony DVD players. The mini dvd's I purchased don't come preformatted so if you want to record more than 24 minutes of good quality video you need to purchase several mini DVD -R disks and format them ahead of time. Otherwise, the event is continuing on and you are waiting for the camera to format the new mini DVD. To avoid the time loss while the camera is finalizing the mini DVD, I just remove the mini DVD and put in a new pre-formatted mini DVD. You don't miss as much of the action that way. Then when the even is over you can put each of the mini DVDs in the camera and finalize them. This is nowhere near as simple as the old Sony 8 mm tape handicam I used for 20 years before upgrading to the new stuff. I have recorded some events on lower quality (LP) and it was acceptable and I got 47 minutes of recording before the disk was full.

So far as price, take a look at some of the online advertisers and you can save some money. I got mine from savebigbigbucks@yahoo.com and couldn't be happier. Of course, you give up the convenience of being able to take the purchase back to the store if something is wrong. Sony makes a good product and you shouldn't need customer assistance. With most online advertisers, you can pay for fast shipping and get it in a day or two if it is in stock. Mine took a little longer because it wasn't in stock at that time.

Now, for the bad news. The mini DVDs are relatively expensive. I use the mini DVD -RW disks and then transfer the data to the larger DVD. That requires that you have a computer with a DVD writer, not just a DVD player. You could have your computer upgraded if you don't have a DVD writer. I tried several programs before settling on Ulead's My DVD Studio because it was the only one I tested that would put movies and slides (the Sony still photo capability) on the large DVD. I expect that this medium will go through several format changes before things settle down. You may have to move or copy your favorite home videos to newer formats several times just to be able to see them on your state of the art home entertainment system in the year 2020. It may be like trying to view your grandmother's 8mm movies on today's entertainment systems.

George