Best budget camcorders

The Kodak Playsport is an excellent minicamcorder that can take some rough treatment and capture solid HD video.

The rugged Kodak PlaySport Zx5 is a very good minicamcorder, but falls just shy of improving on last year's model, despite being more durable.

While its video quality doesn't quite match up to that of the Flip Video MinoHD, the Kodak Zx1 does win points for its stylish, rugged design.

As rugged minicamcorders go, the Panasonic HM-TA20 is very good and definitely deserves consideration.

Sony's Bloggie Duo minicamcorder makes it easier to be part of your own movie clips and photos. But that's about all it does.

The Samsung HMX-W200 might be a little less impressive than its specs, but it's still a very good rugged minicamcorder for the money.

The Kodak Playfull minicamcorder is a pocketful of video fun, but it might be just too "mini" for some.

Typical for their price class, the no-frills Sony Handycam HDR-CX130, CX160, and XR160 produce generally subpar HD video, but if you're not picky you'll probably be fine. The CX130 is the best buy of the three, as long as you go cheap on the memory card.