First, it was Advertising Executive Kevin Agren as I was walking down the hall at Layers Magazine. Then, it was about half a dozen people at my church. And yesterday it was my neighbor Mike from across the street… all wanting to know what is the best mini-DV camcorder to get to record their family events this holiday season. Sure, HD cameras and those that record direct to hard disk are all the rage in the media these days… but those aren’t the one’s the average family man is looking to buy. In fact, every single one of the people I’ve talked to in the past 2 weeks have had the same thing in common: they all want to buy the best camera they can get… for under $500. That seems to be everyone’s magic price point. They don’t need the latest technology or the newest format, they just want the best bang for the buck!

So here’s my pick: the Sony DCR-HC96 Mini DV Camcorder, with 10x Optical/120x Digital Zoom, 3.3 Mega Pixel CCD, Color Viewfinder, and 2.7″ Touch Panel LCD Screen. Surprisingly, this is a one chip camera which means that usually I wouldn’t recommend it (preferring to encourage people to spend a little more for a 3 chip camera). However, in test after test this camera does better in low light than most 3 chip cameras costing a couple hundred dollars more. This is mainly due to the fact that the one chip in this camera is twice as big as the chips in the other cameras. So you’re getting better quality at a lower price!
 

This camera also has the distinction of being able to pass analog video through the camera’s firewire port directly into your computer. This means you can hook up your VCR or old Hi8 camera to the Sony DCR-HC96 and digitize all of your old media with ease. It’s like getting an analog to digital converter for free!
 
You can read all the tech specs and buy it from B&H for $479.

 
 Also, if you want to see other Camcorder choices, you can checkout this roundup of the Best Camcorders of 2007.