Post #514905 by fez monkey on Wed, Mar 3, 2010 8:38 PM

I do video production for a living and I agree with TikTonga. The one advantage of the Flip type camcorders is that they are so small and convenient that one tends to use them a lot more. I carry one everywhere I go. So why am I suggesting you give it a pass?
The downsides are plenty.
They typically have poor (plastic) optics.
Low light performance is usually dreadful.
Most don't have manual focus controls.
The zooms are usually awkward and are often "digital" zooms (which means they're just magnifying the image further reducing quality).
Most don't have external mic or headphone ports (resulting in poor audio) or a shoe mount for useful accessories like lights.
Each time you press the start button a new file is created which can be an issue depending on how involved you plan to be involved in editing this so that it's watchable afterwards: no just running a cable to a TV and watching the day's shooting. You have to play each file by one by one. Most people are not willing to invest dozens of hours to edit something to make it watchable. (I'm one of those weirdos that is.)

You can spend in the $600-$1500 range and overcome many of the limitations above but you're still stuck with the many files situation.

If you do go the solid state recording direction I recommend you check out this model; Aiptek Action HD GVS. Comes with a remote, mini tripod, cables and has both mic and headphone ports.

Taking everything you've revealed into consideration, a DV or HDV camcorder might fit your situation better.

• fm