There's been lots of discussion lately about which cam is better for certain types of shooters. A lot of folks are looking for ultra-easy-to-use cams that let you show your video with minimal technical effort.

An option that hasn't been mentioned is a camcorder that uses SD cards to store compressed video on them. The major advantage of these cams is that they write a file on an internal memory card that can be simply copied to a computer like any other file. Panasonic has a line of cams with this technology called D-Snap. Other manufacturers may have similar models.

Because these cams have no tape transport mechanism or DVD recording hardware they are extremely small--often the size of a deck of cards. And there will be no noise from a motor.

However, as with any camcorder please read the specs carefully so you know what you are getting. Some cams can create MPEG-2 and MPEG-4. Others create only MPEG-4. The D-Snap cams that use MPEG-4 take a small resolution image--320 x 240 pixels or smaller. This is good for web viewing or possibly emailing. If you want to make DVDs a model that takes MPEG-2 is necessary. You could convert the MPEG-4 video to MPEG-2 but it probably won't look too good being blown up to MPEG-2 resolution. And you'll still need DVD authoring software and burning hardware.

Other disadvantages for some will be the difficulty editing the video files as MPEG-2 and 4 are destination formats not designed to be easily edited. For others this could be viewed as a benefit. Likewise, most of these model have only digital zoom due to their small size. Again, for some the small size is more important than zoom capability.

There are the usual encoding setting limitations to MPEG-2 models so, again, read the specs and ask questions. But if you want a portable, nearly fool-proof way of taking video for emailing or posting on a web site these cams might be what you are looking for. If anyone has used these cams we'd like to hear your experience.

Good luck.

Dennis

PS: I have no affiliation with Panasonic or any other manufacturer.