The Handycam Station that comes in the box is a nice touch. If you're indoors, of course, you can always plug it in. This tiny camcorder has a rechargeable lithium ion battery that lasts for a solid hour of filming. I'm also a fan of Sony's night mode shooting capabilities, which seem to edge out the competition. The Handycam DCR-PC109 has a 10X optical zoom and uses progressive scan and an improved image stabilization technology called Super SteadyShot.

I'm partial to the Sony offerings, because I like the Carl Zeiss lenses - which seem to get less glare and more contrast - that the company puts on just about all of its camcorders. There are slightly lower quality formats for saving videotape, but using their top-quality modes ensures that when you import the video into your computer, you won't have to worry for the most part about artifacts or blurring.

Both are compact Mini-DV camcorders weighing in at just under a pound that easily can be carried in one hand and will provide some of the highest-quality video you can shoot.