Buy Cheap Camcorder, Discount Camcorder.

A great value for the money
We bought one of these this fall. I had wanted a camera that I could use at work and carry with me everywhere. It is basically a Flip Video camera competitor but takes HD video for a lower price. No internal memory but 1 gig SD cards are going for .99 in some places around where I live. I bought 2 two gig cards for which gives me a couple of hours of recording time.

As a PC user, I needed to download a QuickTime to AVI converter so Microsoft Movie Maker could import the video (yeah, Movie Maker software is horrible). You can do this with the free Rad Video Tools. Another option is to upgrade to a decent video editing program. I prefer Movie Magix 12 which you can purchase for as low as and it can read the files natively and handle HD video (download free trial here)

It isn't perfect and it is uses a lot of batteries. It came with some nickel cadmium batteries and a charger (nice bonus!) but I find during the holidays I keep several extra around. You can get 40 Maxell batteries at for which made for a good backup.

It won't replace my DV Camera but it is great for taking to the lake, to the park, or just having around my kids