Getting the HD1a cheap!
 

I have just bought the HD1a from an online store in the UK for £209.

Fantastic price!!!

I have been looking around for a camcorder for the past 6 months as my wife is expecting our first child and we wanted a camera for all those first moments.

We decided on a £300 budget; we didn't want a brilliant camcorder, just one that would do us for a few years. I was interested straight away in the HDD JVC and Sony models as my father in law has a Canon DV Tape camcorder (purchased 5 years ago) and the degradation of the quality the tape produces after a few recordings on it is terrible. I didn't know that you are only supposed to record once on DV tape. Anyway, the JVC seemed the best value with a 30Gb drive, but the reviews were mixed stating the video quality was poor. Then the Sony Xacti HD1a appeared last week. I read loads of info on here about it and decided this was the way to go. The 720p HD video seemed a bonus along with the idea that it used SD cards as well.

So it has arrived today and I'm gonna have fun tonight. Also I bought a 4GB SDHC card to use with it....which cost around £30 and this should give us 1hr approx of 720p or anything up to 3hrs at 480p.

Anyway, thanks guys for all the help especially the video examples as well. You basically made up my mind about the camera.

Also, surely £209 or $400 approx. is an amazing price to pay for a handy camera/camcorder that records 720p?