Surround Digital Camcorders

The Bottom Line: While it's a perfectly serviceable HD camcorder, the Sony Handycam HDR-XR100 should deliver a little more of everything for the money.

Specs: Camcorder, Exmor CMOS, 10 x, Flash card, Hard disk drive, 11.6 oz

The Bottom Line: Though their geotagging capabilities are mostly novelty and their interfaces could use a complete overhaul, the top-notch video quality, performance, and consumer-friendly feature sets of the Sony Handycam HDR-XR500V and HDR-XR520V make them worthy camcorder options. Both are overpriced, but since 14 hours of recording time is plenty--especially if supplemented with flash media--the HDR-XR500V is the better deal of the two.

Specs: Camcorder, Exmor R CMOS, 12 x, Flash card, Hard disk drive, 18 oz

The Bottom Line: Though their geotagging capabilities are mostly novelty and their interfaces could use a complete overhaul, the top-notch video quality, performance, and consumer-friendly feature sets of the Sony Handycam HDR-XR500V and HDR-XR520V make them worthy camcorder options. Both are overpriced, but since 14 hours of recording time is plenty--especially if supplemented with flash media--the HDR-XR500V is the better deal of the two.

Specs: Camcorder, Exmor R CMOS, 12 x, Flash card, Hard disk drive, 18 oz

The Bottom Line: A very good prosumer HD camcorder, the Panasonic HDC-HS300 still isn't as good a deal as the similarly featured but flash-based TM300 and has the same annoying touch-screen interface.

Specs: Camcorder, 3CMOS, 12 x, Flash card, Hard disk drive, 16.2 oz

The Bottom Line: A very good prosumer HD camcorder, the Panasonic HDC-TM300 nevertheless has an annoying touch-screen interface.

Specs: Camcorder, CMOS, 12 x, Flash card, 13.6 oz

The Bottom Line: A very good prosumer HD camcorder, the Panasonic HDC-HS250 is the best deal of its product line, but has the same annoying touch-screen interface.

Specs: Camcorder, 3MOS, 12 x, Flash card, Hard disk drive, 14.9 oz

The Bottom Line: Though it has a nice feature set for the price, the Panasonic HDC-SD100 doesn't deliver the quality of video you expect from an HD camcorder in its price segment.

Specs: Camcorder, 3MOS, 12 x, Flash card, 11.3 oz

The Bottom Line: Though it has a nice feature set for the price, the Panasonic HDC-HS100 doesn't deliver the quality of video you expect from an HD camcorder in its price segment.

Specs: Camcorder, 3MOS, 12 x, Hard disk drive, 5.2 megapixels, 14.8 oz

The Bottom Line: You can tell where Sony cut corners on this compact, flash-based HD camcorder. While it's decent, there are better options for the money than the Sony Handycam HDR-CX100.

Specs: Camcorder, ClearVid CMOS, 10 x, Flash card

The Bottom Line: You can tell where Sony cut corners on this compact, flash-based HD camcorder. While it's decent, there are better options for the money than the Sony Handycam HDR-CX100.

Specs: Camcorder, ClearVid CMOS, 10 x, Flash card