High Def 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

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

Aiptek AHD Z500 Plus

We're happy to report that you can find the Aiptek AHD Z500 Plus for under £200, which is great considering it's a 'full HD', lightweight camcorder. It's a true point-and-shoot and yields crisp images and movies and performs well in most situations -- though sound quality leaves something to be desired

Editor's rating 6.7

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

Kodak Zi6

While bigger than most of its competitors and high priced for a mini camcorder, the Kodak Zi6's attractive design and decent video quality adequately compensate for some usability drawbacks. Most notably, we wanted an optional memory card to make up for the mere 30MB of storage

Editor's rating 7.0

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

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

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

Samsung VP-HMX10

The Samsung VP-HMX10 is a very accessible camcorder. While its glossed black, classy design emphasises the importance of style, it's also extremely user friendly. Surprisingly, it's priced to be affordable, helping this Samsung bring HD shooting to the masses

Editor's rating 7.2

Panasonic HDC-SD9

The Panasonic HDC-SD9 is one of the smallest and lightest full-size camcorders we've tested, and yet it still manages to pack in a good number of features -- you can even manually adjust aperture and shutter speed, which is unusual in this class

Editor's rating 7.2

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 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

Aiptek AHD200

High-definition filming couldn't be simpler with the Aiptek AHD200 camcorder. Plug in a memory card, open the screen and away you go. It's a perfectly decent camcorder for anyone on a budget who's looking to take a compact shooter on holiday or someone ready to start an HD career

Editor's rating 6.0

Hitachi DZ-BD70E

The format war is over and with Blu-ray victorious, the Hitachi DZ-BD70E attempts to claim the spoils as the first Blu-ray camcorder on the market. Recording 'Full HD' footage on to Blu-ray discs, this shooter also provides plenty of features, plus an interactive guide for use

Editor's rating 6.6

Toshiba Gigashot A100F

The Toshiba Gigashot A100F has put high definition and large capacity into the hands of the everyday shooter with its venture into the HD camcorder world. It's a beautifully-styled, respectably performing excellent HD camcorder for someone looking to film some simple footage

Editor's rating 7.0

Panasonic HDC-SD5

Panasonic's HDC-SD5 is a 3CCD hi-def camcorder that records to flash memory. This makes it very small and light, but it manages to offer a high-resolution foldout screen. Intelligent contrast control makes for great quality high-definition footage

User rating 6.5

Editor's rating 7.8

Canon HR10

The Canon HR10 is camcorder that records to DVDs in the AVCHD format. It has an excellent complement of manual controls, including some nice image and digital effects, as well as Instant AF for changing the focus quickly. All in all, this camcorder produces some great video

Editor's rating 7.2

Canon HG10

The Canon HG10, the hard drive-based, AVCHD-compatible camcorder, takes some chances. For starters, it has one of the most comfortable zoom switches in its class. Plus, upping its low-light performance, both focus and video quality, means it goes beyond other models to produce sharp photo and video

Editor's rating 7.5

JVC Everio GZ-HD3

The JVC Everio GZ-HD3 is a scaled-down version of the Everio GZ-HD7 released a few months ago. It includes the same triple-CCD design and many of the same features, although it includes a Konica Minolta with a 10x optical zoom range and digital image stabilisation

User rating 4.5

Editor's rating 6.1

Sony Handycam HDR-CX6EK

There are some great features squashed into the tiny body of the Sony Handycam HDR-CX6EK. It's small thanks to its AVCHD flash memory, and you can use the touchscreen interface to navigate a nice complement of controls, all through the sharp Zeiss T lens. Do you have room for a little 'un?

User rating 8.5

Editor's rating 8.0