Currently I have a Canon SD700IS. It's a great camera and has good video recording quality(albeit mono low quality sound). However, it doesn't support SDHC, and it records in MJPEG, which takes a lot of space. I'm looking for a cheap video recording device. I was looking at camcorders. Alas most HDD camcorders are way above my budget. There are cheaper flash-based camcorders, but from the reviews I read, their quality is not far from a good digicam (mostly they all use the same CCD). Here's my preferred requirements: 1. Price: around $200, maybe cheaper. I don't want my SD700IS to be obsolete. It's still an excellent digital camera. If the price is creeping up to $300, I might as well get the SD850IS/870IS. 2. Uses SD/SDHC. That means no Sony nor Fuji. 3. Ideally uses MPEG4 compression to maximize storage capacity. 4. Optical/mechanical image stabilization. 5. Optical zoom 6. It should be a decent digicam too, just in case I can only bring 1 device at a time. What I've been researching: Canon A720IS: Can be found fairly cheap online. However, it's Canon, so it uses MJPEG. Casio EX-Z1080: Anybody have any experience with this one? SDHC, MPEG4 video recording. Does it have image stabilization? But proprietary USB cable kinda turns me off. Any other suggestions? Thanks.
I'm loving my spanking new SDR-S150 BUT prior bought and tested the much cheaper ($229 Circuit City) Panasonic SDR-S10. Only 8oz. Does not meet all your specs but does meet many or most. And no other camcorder quite like it. My SDR-S150 is 3-chip but bumped the price to %529 and WORTH all 10 ounces of it.
