I'm new to the world of video recording and looking to buy a camcorder. What do you all reccomend? I'm looking to spend between £200-300. I will mostly be using a PC for viewing and for some editing so I guess a HDD will be best.

If there are any decent cheap HD cams out there, please let me know, I may be willing to extend my budget.

Thanks!

You guess wrong. Tape is still best for editing (as well as archiving) and you'll get a better camera for your money (as tape transport adds less to the cost than HDD)

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Tim

Your budget actually gives you a few options on kit. What you should get ultimately depends on what you want to do.

Mini DV camcorders are now very affordable with prices starting from about £120. Despite the growth of DVD and HDD camcorders, tape still offers the highest recording quality. If you go for Mini DV, you should have plenty of budget left for accessories and video editing software. You should ensure your PC has a firewire connection, but if not, PCI Firewire cards are cheap these days.

A HDD based camcorder will be at the top end of your budget. It offers the advantage of easy access to your recordings and high speed transfer to your PC (mini DV footage is captured in real time).

I personally use a HDD camcorder because most of my recordings are short clips that I sometimes need to instantly review and/or xfer to my PC or laptop quickly - something that is not practical with tape.

If you still want to go with a HDD camcorder, I would recommend Sony's SR35E, which is within your budget on amazon.co.uk.