Sony Handycam DCR-SR90E

Firstly I am not going to quote all the technically stuff - so if you need all those details it would be best to go to the Sony website.

This camcorder is exactly what I require - its light and compact it can record about 7 hours video and 9999 photos.

Its very easy to use - simply by flicking the dial to move between shooting video, taking photos and viewing your videos and photos.

The photos are an excellent quality 3 mega pixels - and you could not tell the difference from those taken on my Sony P150 (which has 7 mega pixels) As the camcorder is so light and compact it is easy to carry it round and get it out to take some photos.

Taking video is easy too - all the buttons seem to be I logical places when you get the hang of it. They are lots of settings to mess around with you are so inclined (like my husband) or (like me) you can just press a button called 'easy' which sets it up just fine.

It has a viewfinder (handy in bright sun) or you can use the screen. The screen has zoom and a start/stop buttons as well. All the settings can be changed using the touch screen menu.

It has a nightlight feature for taking video or photos at night - very good if you want to shot you own version of the Blair witch project

I purchased an underwater kit at the same time. It was really easy to work the two together. You plug the camcorder into the underwater box thing and then you can operate the camcorder from the buttons on the underwater box thing - I was very worried taking my new toy in the sea for the first time but it worked well and I got some excellent video. The only draw back is that it does draw a lot on the battery - so you need to purchase a bigger battery than the one, which is included with the camcorder.

You can burn the video on to DVD- plug the camcorder into the computer and press the DVD burn button - easy

You can preview you video on the screen or using the cable provided plug into your TV to view.

You and create a sequence of video clips to play after each other.

I haven't had time to mastered editing my video clips so I can't comment of the software provided

Overall this is an excellent all round camcorder - easy to use - no expensive DVD's to buy - as you can record on to normal Blank DVDs
Bad points - you need a DVD burner to burn on to DVD and if you use the underwater kit you will need to buy a bigger battery.