Camcorders

Panasonic HDC-HS100

The Panasonic HDC-HS100 ticks just about every box for a camcorder. It's compact but still grippable, while boasting a roomy hard drive. It sports a number of high-end features while still being a piece of cake to operate and benefitting from effective automatic modes. And, considering all the features, its price is right

Editor's rating 8.4

Samsung VP-HMX20

Samsung is coming into its own on the camcorder front, with the Samsung HMX20. It's a sleeker, more confident beast, and impressed us with the quality of its video even in low light, making this more than just a good-looking model. It's lacking a few things, but its ease of use more than makes up for it

Editor's rating 8.3

JVC Everio GZ-MC200

We've seen small camcorders before, but the MC200 ushers in a whole new generation of handheld camcorders that you can almost enclose in your palm. These suckers are small, really small. If you've been reluctant to take a camcorder on holiday because of the size of the things, you might be swayed by the MC200 -- it's the same size as a rolled-up pair of socks

User rating 8.7

Editor's rating 8.3

Sony TG3E

The Sony TG3E camcorder is perfect for people who are sick of making compromises -- either in quality in favour of size, or size in favour of quality. Though it isn't exactly mini at 240g, it's portable and, significantly, yields amazing HD footage with well-tuned features. If you ask us, that's the best of both worlds

Editor's rating 8.2

JVC Everio GZ-MG20

While casual users will find the MG20's nine-hour footage capacity is more than enough for general use, compulsive videographers will be better off opting for a removable hard-disk camera. But the overwhelming reason to opt for the MG20 is its tin-can size

User rating 8.0

Editor's rating 8.1

Sony Handycam HDR-SR11

There's a whole lot to like about the Sony Handycam HDR-SR11. Not only does this shooter capture beautiful video, it also shoots excellent still photos. If you're in the market for a hard-drive-based high-definition camcorder, you won't go wrong with this Sony

Editor's rating 8.0

Canon HF10

The Canon HF10 definitely deserves a spot on your short list of potential home-movie camcorders. This dual flash memory combines 16GB of built-in flash memory and a slot for SDHC. Its performance is above average for its class, and footage retains a significant amount of detail

Editor's rating 8.0

Canon HG20

We're loving the Canon HG20 HD camcorder, if not just for its bigger 60GB hard drive compared to Canon's comparable HF11's 32GB of internal flash memory. But that's just where it starts -- the HG20 is cheaper at around £720 and has excellent lens performance, not to mention superb video quality and understated design

Editor's rating 8.0

JVC Everio GZ-HD40

The reasonably compact Everio GZ-HD40 is a dual-format high-definition camcorder, shooting in both AVCHD and MPEG-2 TS, allowing you to get the best of both worlds. The menu system is convoluted, but the HD40 offers very good video quality and plenty of manual options

Editor's rating 8.0

Canon HF100

Aside from price, there are only a few minor differences between the Canon HF100 and its brother, the HF10. Cosmetically, the HF100 is a sleek, matte-grey instead of black. Plus, it lacks the HF10's internal memory, relying on SDHC cards. Still, it produces great video

Editor's rating 8.0

Creative Vado HD

The easy-to-use Vado HD marries impressive video quality with a strong feature set, making it a serious rival to the leader in the mini-camcorder market, the Flip Video Mino HD. The Vado HD also boasts one feature that its main rivals do not -- a mini HDMI connector

User rating 7.0

Editor's rating 8.0

Flip Video UltraHD

The Flip Video UltraHD follows its other mini-camcorder brethren in getting simplicity right. Although it's lacking in style, the UltraHD makes up in ease of use and good 720p HD video quality. It delivers the best video yet from these budget, Web-friendly camcorders

Editor's rating 8.0

Sony Handycam HDR-CX12E

The compact Handycam HDR-CX12E flash-based camcorder offers impressive high-def video quality, good still photos and a decent feature set. You might miss some of the perks that you get on larger rivals, such as an eye-level viewfinder and bigger LCD screen, but the CX12E is excellent all the same

Editor's rating 8.0

Canon Legria HF200

The flash-based, high-definition Legria HF200 compact camcorder is pricey compared to many of its rivals. But a relatively extensive feature set, top-notch performance and excellent video-quality go some way to justifying the extra cost. And it all comes in a functional, classy-looking package

Editor's rating 8.0

Canon HV30

The Canon HV30 is an upgrade to last year's top-notch HV20. This model features a sleeker-looking black body and much longer battery life, making it a well-designed prosumer camcorder with a useful feature set, great performance and excellent video quality

Editor's rating 8.0

Sony Handycam HDR-SR12

There's a whole lot to like about the Sony Handycam HDR-SR12. Not only does this shooter capture beautiful video to its impressive 120GB hard drive, it also shoots excellent still photos. If you're in the market for a hard drive-based high-definition camcorder, you won't go wrong with this Sony

Editor's rating 8.0

Panasonic PV-GS400

With a street price of around £700, the Panasonic PV-GS400 is one of the best consumer-camcorder deals available. I offers a 3CCD capture system, 12x optical zoom with optical stabiliser, 89mm LCD screen and manual control over almost every function -- but don't mistake it for a professional camera

User rating 9.0

Editor's rating 8.0

Sony Handycam HDR-HC7

It may be a tad on the pricey side, but as a high-definition camcorder, Sony's Handycam HDR-HC7 is well worth the money -- video quality is excellent and there are a good range of manual controls

Editor's rating 8.0

Canon Legria HF S100

Offering top-notch performance and video quality, the SD card-based Legria HF S100 is an excellent high-definition camcorder with a good, functional design. As long as you can live without an electronic viewfinder and internal memory, you'll find it provides a better shooting experience than many of its rivals

Editor's rating 8.0

Flip Video MinoHD

The MinoHD isn't without its drawbacks, most notably a high price tag and its lack of a memory-expansion slot, but it's a great mini-camcorder nonetheless. Considering its size, this ultra-simple device shoots solid 720p video, and uploading your recordings to the Internet couldn't be much easier

Editor's rating 8.0