I Need A Video Camera Recommendation

OK gardeners and garden bloggers I need your help. Years ago I bought our first video camera to help film the antics of our children.  I bought it just before our oldest was born and many things have changed over the years. Essentially technology has made my old mini tape video camera obsolete. I can’t even hook it up to our current computer to download videos! This may seem way out of the norm for garden blog topic material but my hope is that you can lead me to a really good video camera that not only will preserve my children in a state of perpetual suspended animation for eternity but will also give me an opportunity to start doing a few garden videos here on The Home Garden!

Dave’s Children

I’ve already ruled out the Flip video cameras. I like having a nice zoom feature and the 2x digital zoom seems to fall way short of the mark. Although if you’ve used it and enjoyed it please share your experience, maybe I’ve ruled it out too quickly. I’m definitely looking to go with a flash memory camera. I think that’s the direction most camera companies are headed for their newer products.

One of the cameras I was considering was the Sony HDR-CX110. It has a 20x zoom which I think will be adequate for just about anything I need. It’s High definition so we can look at all those aphids on my spireas (they’re back again!) in HD. It also uses a flash memory card which enables me to use the card reader on my computer or to swap out cards if I want to preserve video on the card.

A step up from that one is the Sony HDRCX-130. It’s about $100 more expensive but has a 48x zoom and can hold the 32GM Flash cards. The CX110 can only go up to 16 GB. Both cameras are supposed to do great in low light situations which could be helpful when I talk about shade gardens.

I’ve only looked into the Sony cameras so far at a salesperson’s recommendation but I’d like to hear about what you use for your home or blog videos. Why do you like it? Would you recommend it? What would you avoid getting in a camera? What features do you recommend everyone have in a video camera?