A decent digi video cam??

[Nick]

I guess this could be one for Saracen to answer, but please feel free to add any advice as you all see fit.

I'm after a middle of the range video camera, preferably digital, so I can video the kids mucking about and tranfer that to VHS. I also want to be able to take stills to transfer to the PC, so I guess digital is the only way forward.

I've read a little about it, but only got as far as getting totally confused over what digital and mini dv is... so, HELP!

Someone please give me some advice on what's best, where to buy and how much I'm looking to spend. I'm not after David Bailey quality pictures here, but I want something good enough to get decent images printed at the local photo shop...

Away you go chaps, baffle me with techno terms!

[fondie]

A camcorder isn't going to be very good at getting you decent quality photos i'm afraid, only the most expensive (£1200+) have anything over a 1 mega pixel resolution which isn't much good for printing photo's.

You'll probably do better buying both a mini DV camcorder with firewire output (£400-500) for video AND a digital camera (£150-300) for photos.

Also, i'd suggest you tranfer them to DVD rather than VHS, the camcorder should plug directly into the PC using firewire and then easily edited and burnt to DVD with a DVD writer (Pioneer DVR106 for £130). You'll get much higher quality and less degredation over time than a VHS cassette.