So my brother and his wife are having a baby (well, his wife is having the baby ... I guess he'll be standing there ) in January, so my parents, my wife, and I are going to split the cost of getting them a DV camera for Christmas. We're looking in the $500-$1000 range. Anyone have any recommendations on brands/models or know of some reliable, objective review sites? One that I've looked at so far that looks pretty good is the Canon Optura 200MC ...

ms

I had too many tabs open .. thought i was posting in off-topic.

Good place to start is here. For the price range you mentioned I'd recommend one of the Canon Optura series camcorders. The 300 is very nice for the money. I'm still saving for an XL1.

I have a Canon Elura 40MC and I love it. You get a bit of motor whine in the video especially when shooting outdoors, but so far that is my only complaint, and I could fix that with an external microphone. The Elura series and the Optura series are small enough to fit into a coat pocket, which is a big plus in my book. I'm still not 100% sure on how to carry it around except in a photo bag, but I'll be experimenting with that more in the future. I'm thinking of getting a strap that attaches to the tripod mount on the bottom. The DV quality is very good, and I've been happy with the quality of my shots so far. I'm really looking forward to taking it out to the slopes this winter, I'm pretty sure I'll get some good video then.

I have a cheapo Canon ZR-10, which by now has been revved to the current ZR-40. It's still small and it works fantastic. I don't really understand why you would ever want to spend more for basic applications like "wave for grandma!" If you want digital still photos, you can get a much better still camera plus the low-end DV camcorder for less than the cost of a combo unit.

You get a bit of motor whine...

This is one of the things they fixed with the Optura 300. It is said to be one of the quietest cameras in its class.

I sound like a car commercial.

That's great then. At the time I was evaluating my options, all the smaller DV cameras had motor whine. The Canon had the best options and value for the price so I bought it.

Most definitely. Canon has been ahead of the game, if not at least just "doing things a little better," for the past few years.