Hello people, its my 1st post so be gentle

I am looking for a new camcorder to film car rallies, ie forest and tarmac events. Im sure I want a Mini DV type as Ive read they are the best for editing and making DVD's, and I use 1 at the moment.

but I dont know what kind to get, Ive done a bit of research and my thinking is I need 1 with 3CCD and a good optical zoom, but I cant find 1 with a bigger zoom than 12x! (mine is 22x at the moment)

I started looking at the Panasonic NV-GS230/320 about 300ish new
then I started looking at the Canon XM1 about 550ish 2nd hand from e-bay, would I get any better footage from the Canon and if so how noticable would it be?

or am I looking at the wrong type of camcorder?

I would also like to be able to take a pic from the footage to put into a DVD cover

any help, Im sure will go along way


cheers