Try this link for the best of each price range
http://www.camcorderinfo.com/content/CamInfo-Select-2005.htmYou see that they separated non-tape from tape. To me, it implied the picture quality. As such, it's a tradeoff between convenience and quality.
In addition, if you think of editing, non-tape format will be very difficult to handle. Each camera can only fit some software even though editing software said it can handle MPEG2. Case in point are
1. Panny SDR-S100, an SD card based camcorder, that only Pinnacle Studio can detect and edit it while other wellknown software
Ulead can't.
2. Sony DVD-403, probably the best non-tape camcorder so far with top ranks in most major magazine including PCMagazine and Camcorder. The movie recorded in this camcorder can't be imported into most famous editing program including Adobe Premiere Elements, MyDVD Studio Deluxe, Pinnacle Studio 9.4, or Ulead VideoStudio 9.
3. JVC GZ-MG30, an elder brother to MG20: PCMagazine indicated that "On the downside, there was the usual problem of editing the MPEG-2 files: Neither Pinnacle Studio 9.4, Sonic MyDVD Studio Deluxe, Adobe Premiere Elements 1.0, nor Ulead VideoStudio 9 would let us import video files"
For those who don't want to edit and wants conveniences with very little flexibility going forward, try non-tape.
However, I did show one person who has this intention and manage to change his mind. Editing is actually not that difficult and make the movie much more fun, particularly for others to enjoy it.
I use a very basic and free editing software from Microsoft called Movie Maker. For those who said they don't have time or creativity, try the "Automovie" function from this free software. The end product is decent and managed to change that person's mind. Plus you save more money buying tape based camcorder.
Editing is actually a bitter pill for one who has never tried. To try to show family movie unedit to others who's not your immediate family will bore them to death. With this "Automovie" function, I don't think most has any excuse not to edit as it's so easy. You just leave it to computer to do the work while you could do other things at the time. Try this link for sample family movie with some basic editing. It's "really" fun to watch. And you can do it too!
For broadband
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/moviemaker/learnmore/vacationmovie_lrg.asxFor dial-up
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/moviemaker/learnmore/vacationmovie_sm.asxOther movie samples are here
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/moviemaker/videos/samples.mspxI
this one the most
http://download.microsoft.com/download/whistler/wxp/awe/dayinlife/genxp600k.wmv