Its all fine till I have to capture the video footage, but that easy looking camcorder suddenly gets all complicated when I have to view those mini disks at home on a DVD player. If you fumble like I do then the Canon HR10 camcorder is for you. It captures HD footage and records it to DVD and not Blu-ray or HD DVD. It uses a technology called Advanced Video Codec High Definition (AVCHD) thus when it records, the HR10 ‘crams video with a resolution of 1,920 x 1,080 pixels onto 3-inch discs.’ You can record more with the Cine Mode, which changes the frame rate to film’s 24 frames per second. It also comes with an HDMI output for connection to an HDTV.

The Canon HR10 camcorder has a hitch that the disks can play in only certain players (most Blu-ray machines) and PCs. It will be out in August and cost about $1,199.