For that kind of money, I've bought two Panasonics over the past few years - one for me, one for my daughter - and have been absolutely delighted with both, The only thing to look out for is that it should have a Firewire rather than a USB connection. I just checked out the NVGS17 at Currys - less than £200 off their web site, but apparently USB, not Firewire.

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Premiere Pro, Encore, Photoshop, Ulead VS6, WXP Pro, Core 2 Duo, 2GB, 2 x 250GB SATA3 drives, 2 x 250GB USB 2 external drive, DVD writer, GeForce 7300 GS 256MB

The biggest fool can ask questions that the wisest man cannot answer...