Matej Artac put fingers to keyboard and typed... [QUOTE] You'll probably find the votes on this board for the Sony units. I have one (a DCR-HC85E) which I'm quite happy with (except that I feel the tape transport mechanism shouldn't be as audible while recording, and certainly not on the recordings themselves), and this is mostly due to the fact that it seems robust enough, it has good optics, and it tells you how much battery life there is left in minutes.[/QUOTE] Originally I was also leaning towards the 'big S' as I had been pushed in that direction by friends who had more experience of digital video. In fact for the first couple of days' research, I was only looking at Sony units like thew pc109, hc40, hc85, pc330 and hc1000. [QUOTE] I do wish that during my research I'd consider a Canon which, I guess, produces better images (both the stills and the video), but this is really only a guess from the fact that their still digital cameras make better images than the Sony's. However, at the time I ruled Canon out completely as I heard people complain about a loud tape transport mechanism audible on the recordings as well... (it seems that it's even louder than that of my HC85E). I am not at all familiar with their line, and even less with the Panasonic's. Sure, a 3CCD does sound good, but I wonder if they process the picture as well as Canon does.[/QUOTE] Once I started considering different manufacturers (and had a shortlist of about 20 cams) Canon did come high up on my list. I was particularly drawn to the colour reproduction capability using the RGB filters to separate the colours. [URL]http://tinyurl.com/5wuf6[/URL] The MVX25i was at the top of my list as i thought it would give a good image without the cost of a 3 (decent sized) ccd cam, however an online review of the NTSC variant of the NV-GS400 made me think that the difference in quality really was worth it. [URL]http://tinyurl.com/4x8wc[/URL] [QUOTE] You know best why you chose those three models, but perhaps you could review [URL]http://www.camcord.info/buying/index.html[/URL] again. Further, compare also their sensor pixel amount, as a two-megapixel camera usually produces sharper and better pictures on a film than one with less megapixels. If you can, test the cameras, see how easily they are used, how well they behave and, if possible, how good their recordings are.[/QUOTE] TBH I chose one of the bottom, middle and top of my price range - I was told at the showroom that "you or I wouldn't notice the difference in image quality between the pc109 and the gs400". I wasn't sure how seriously to take this advice. Personally I feel that after editing and burning to a DVD at a decent bitrate and viewing on a large tv I WOULD notice the difference between a single 1/5" CCD and 3 1/4.7" ones. The canon has a 1/3.6" 2.2Mpixel CCD and combined with the colour reproduction, I felt it would be a decent compromise. Bearing in mind this is the same company that makes the XL1S - by all accounts a top-notch cam I felt I couldn't go wrong. Having never had a camcorder (never mind a digital one) before, I have nothing to go by short of buying a miniDV tape shooting some scenes in various conditions and viewing results on DVD. Is the Panny REALLY that much better in terms of quality when viewed on tv? Is it worth the extra 300 quid?