Thanks AMN!

You answered my question perfectly. I have two firewires on the back of my Dell, but I've never had anything to hook up to them. I think I'll go for a lower end mini-DV. I want image stabilization (cause I'm not always steady handed). I've seen some lower priced ones that have as high as 40x optical zoom!

I also need a night or low light mode, and maybe a macro setting too. I like easy, reliable and low prices. I'm going to give the Canons a second look.

I have a Sony camera and it has such an awesome lense. It's getting old now though and the USB is only compatible up to Windows 2000.

I don't think I want the camcorder with the camera feature though. They typically only give you 1mp quality and cost $50-$100 more.