I wanted to stay away from tapes, hard drive models and DVD camcorders.
SD cards are fantastic methods for storing video, in that the cards are silent (no tape drive noise!), very small, have high storage capacities and have dropped in price significantly over the past few months. I picked up two 16GB SDHC memory cards, which can hold about two hours of video each, at the highest quality setting. The latter two have memory built-in (16GB and 8GB, respectively), and the FS100 does not have internal memory, nor does it include any SD memory. The FS100 is nearly identical to Canon's FS11 and FS10 in the FS camcorder family. It's very light and small, and I haven't felt any hand fatigue while using it to shoot due to weight or awkward design. The FS100 is a standard-def camcorder that still yields fantastic video quality, in widescreen (16x9) format if you choose, which looked great on my 37" and 50" plasma TVs. In a couple years or so, I'm sure prices will have fallen enough to make a high-def camera a no- brainer. I considered a high-def camcorder, but then decided at more than twice the price, it's not worth it for me. What brand, color, price range or size? Should I choose standard definition (SD) or high-def ( HD)? Flash media, tape, hard drive or DVD for recording media? There are lots of choices!
In short? I like it! These days, camcorder options are numerous and can be confusing. I've been using the Canon FS100 digital camcorder for a couple weeks now, and feel that I've run it through its paces well enough to formulate an opinion.