First, there’s the Sony HDR-SR5. I have a ten year old Sony Handycam that I like reasonably well, and I know Sony makes good stuff.

Second, there’s this Panasonic HDC-SD1. This is the one that records on to SDHC cards. They make 8 GB cards now, so I could probably get over 90 minutes of HD video on one card, but I’m not sure if SDHC is a good idea or not. They do have the benefit of being swappable, so if I run out of space I can just put a new one in. You can’t do that with a hard drive. But then again, the card only stores 90 minutes. The hard drive stores something like 20 hours.

I’m interested in opinions and guidance. It’s a big purchase. Does anyone have anything good or bad to say about these two cameras? Does anyone recommend a different camera? Is there something significant or worth having that I’m giving up by looking in this particular price range?