Canon DC230

I wanted a small camcorder to film my family that I could throw in a diaper bag or my purse and whip out at a moments notice.

I also wanted one that I didn't have to worry about converting the media later, so I was mostly interested in camcorders that recorded on disc so that I could take it straight from the camera to the DVD player.

What I like about the Canon DC230 is that is it small and well made.It has a variety of adjustable features, or you can point and shoot (which is what I do).You can use two different formats when recording, one that you can edit but may not play in all DVD players, and one that you can only delete the last footage but can be played in most DVD players.I chose to use the one that is more compatible as after testing the other mode, I was not able to play it with our DVD player.

I do find it hard to use this camcorder.It has a side hand strap and the controls are in the back of the camcorder, but my thumb is not long enough to comfortable reach all the controls one-handed, and I generally end up using both hands to operate it.

The discs that it uses records up to 30 minutes and I have found they do have some issues playing in a DVD player.

If I had it to do again, I would have bought a camcorder that recorded on a memory card and converted the video to DVD on my computer instead.