• I want to shoot birthday parties, baby steps, holiday gatherings, and school plays.
• I plan to take my camcorder on my holidays, so portability is important.
• I don't need to do anything fancy, but I'd like the option of doing a little editing and adding some basic effects.
• I'm looking for simple controls and easy output.

• Design Horizontal, vertical, compact, ultracompact
• Lens type 10X or greater zoom controlled via switch or lens ring; electronic or optical image stabilisation
• Sensor 1/6-inch or larger CCD; minimum 340,000-pixel effective (a.k.a. actual) video resolution
• Minimum illumination rating 7 lux or lower
• Recording format MiniDV; Digital8; MicroMV; mini DVD-R/RW/RAM; Microdrive/CompactFlash
• Ports and connectors FireWire (a.k.a. i.Link or IEEE 1394); A/V; USB; S-Video; accessory shoe; microphone terminal; headphone terminal
• Exposure controls Automatic; exposure shift; programmed scene modes; backlight mode; low-light mode
• Focus controls Automatic; manual option via dial on camcorder body
• Viewfinder and LCD Colour viewfinder and 2.5-inch or larger colour LCD
• Multimedia Memory card slot for photo capture; MPEG-1 or MPEG-4 video for Web and e-mail

Nice features to look for

• Bundled video-editing software;
• digital effects;
• fader;
• Webcam functionality; 16:9 aspect-ratio mode for wide-screen playback;
• 1- or 2-megapixel photo capture;
• remote control;
• touch-screen LCD;
• interval recording;
• analog-to-digital conversion for digitising 8mm or Hi8 video