Franco,

Go on and keep commenting! I wouldn't have said a word about the camcorder if you didn't start the thread.

Definitely waiting for the next generation of HD camcorders. I played with a few of them at the store - at $800 I can be happy with my $200 Ebay steal for a bit longer.

Panasonic has a line of HD cams that show promise, but I wouldn't buy the hard disk version, even if it has a freefall sensor. The video forums are full of people who bought camcorders with hard drives and crashed them. With memory card prices dropping rapidly, I don't see any reason to trade five 1/6 oz 8 GB flash cards for 7 oz of 40 GB hard drive. 16 GB cards are available but still pricey. 32 GB cards are supposed to show later this year.

The camera definitely has a fun factor to it. At least my two girls seem to think so. I think they've used it more than I have! That also explains why I've already got 70 GB worth of movies on the computer. Guess I'll need one of those terabyte external drives soon! The semi-indestructibility of the unit makes me much more comfortable letting them play with it.

- Jim