[maxflia10]

I need some bady needed advice of a purchase of a video recorder. I do volunteer work for an organization that grants "wishes" to children. One of the uses of the camera will be to video the child wish day and transform this into a DVD so the child can had some type of visusal memory of the day. This of course would involve editing. The second usage is using it to produce a DVD to give to potential customer to explain the program. There are so many cam coders, I'm confused. My budget woul be about $1000. And advice appreciated.

[linskyjack]

You essentially want a DV camera---one that takes mini-Dv tapes. I recommend the Panasonic PV-GS400----its three CCD camera (unusual for a camera for under a thousand) It is good in low light, has very decent optics. It also has manual controls if you should ever need to use them. Remember, you will also need a computer that accepts firewire, and it is always a good idea to have an extra 7200 rpm 8mb cache to capture your video. Since you are doing this for a good cause, I would be very helpful to serve as an advisor for you----I do this for a living and could help you avoid some of the pitfalls of shooting and editing video. Just pm me if you are interested.