Parents wanted me to give them advice on what cheapish camcorder for my sister I'm thinking of telling them either a panny dv53 or a JVC DC70 she would like a digital camera built in to it but from my research none of them are worth a darn till you get into the 500ish range. is this true or thier another mdel i'm overlooking

Digital cameras built into video cameras are prett much worthless in any camera. None even come close to a stand-alone digital camera, not to mention picture size is usually a lot smaller on video cams.

I have a DV53 that I use as a deck and a toss around. It's a great cheap camera. It's a great little $300 camera
I bought it just after I sold my DV52 and realized that I missed having a cheap toss around camera.

I have the JVC GRD90u and use it just like Dennis does. It has been good and had a built in camera that has removalable memory stick. As stated the pics are not that good. It has some (very limited) manual controls and lots of different features, including the ability to be a web cam (haven't tried that yet). I got it for something like $324 (before shipping) from buydig.com. It is awkward to hold, but gets the job done for a cheap throw-around camera/deck.

Clay

Jon,

I'll throw my 11/2 cents worth in and go along with the crowd, get the Pana dv53. I don't have any real experience with this camcorder but my friend is happy with his and all of the reviews and post I have read have been positive. www.camcorderinfo.com
gave it a very good review. Like Dennis if I were to get a less expensive camcorder to play around with it would be the dv53.

Good luck and Happy Holidays.

Dennis, what was the difference between the 52 and
the 53?