picking up the sony hc3 hd camcorder in prep for becoming a dad and now trying to pick up a good digicam....i am not too keen about the lack of image stabilization and dust prevention on most entry level dslr's...anyone have any thoughts/advice/feedback?

now or within a short time frame. It's based upon Sony's new standard. The only issue with this camera, that I have heard or are compatibility issues wrt to iMovie. iMoive is quicktime based, and this Sony Hidef camera is currently not. I have the HC 1, and it took alot of fooling around in the cameras menus in order for iMovie to see the camera.

When it comes to DSLR I like Canon. The new Rebel has a dust removal system but is missing the stabilization. If you want those features in an entry level DSLR then the Sony is the one to buy.
Having said that Canon is currently offering a rebate program for DSLR bodies and lenses. I'm in the market for a zoom lens.
When you buy both the rebate doubles. :) We should talk. EZ

The lack of IS shouldn't be a factor really. While in-body IS is nice as it'll work regardless of any lens, there are still limitations.

If your kid grows up and is running around the house at mach one :) there's no way that IS is going to help you here of course. Use of a larger aperture and high ISO will help achieve a faster shutter to freeze the action. My experience photoing babies, they're totally unpredictable! They're more or less will sit still for a while, then they learn how to crawl and then want to grab your camera!

Dust prevention is a fact of life, if you're shooting at a small aperture like F18 or higher, yes, the smaller specs of dust will appear as dark smudges on the image, but anything under isn't all that visible. The hassle of cleaning the sensor is just a part of life and it's not all that difficult. I get a fair bit of dust changing a lens at Mosport constantly but that's to be expeected, everything else outside of that it's not all that bad actually (can go through a year almost without cleaning if I change the lens carefully).

You wil probably want to read the various reviews of the DSC-R1 but it's pretty good, basically a high end P&amp;S with a large sensor.<ul><li><a href="http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/sonydscr1/">http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/sonydscr1/</a</li></ul>

deal with its crazy compression....initial reviews have stated that playback via hdmi to tv is amazing, but just viewing things on the desktop things get choppy....as for the HD...i am keen on going that route, but what do u do when u are on vacation and u run out of HD space? There doesnt seem to be a lot of thought put into that or backup of the data - with the hc1 and hc3 u already have the data on minihd tapes.

to be released Canon G7. 10 mp 35-210 optical zoom
DIGIC 3 processor (fast) really cool face recognition technology.
Good for baby pictures. I think Bruno wants one as well. I met Bruno at the Henry's show, and both of us came to the same conclusion. There are many times when a DSLR is the weapon of choice, but for those other times the G7 is almost a replacement.

Your concern over the amount of space on the hard drive is a valid one The reality is you are probably never going to take that much video on vacation to fill up the drive.

I'm not sure which Mac you have at home, but my Dual 1.25 could not keep up. It was importing the video at up to 1/2 speed of the actual footage playing on the camera. It was like deja vous.
The answer to that problem is to wait till Jan-Feb 07 when they announce the new desktops, at which point Blu Ray burners will be standard.

Though I'd probably stick with Canon, and more so with the G7.

But only at 15fps, but at 640x480, both can do the asme.

There is a rebate on SLR and lenses though but nothing for P&amp;S cameras if I recall. Best you can do is shop around and go from there.

I forgot that it has a stabilizer built in and the camera is
not that big.

great deal from Eshel's connection at Henry's.

Tanner - you need to offer a 2 hour crash course on taking pics!

If you don't need the extra zoom range, then the G7 is a great value.

Asked her if he gets any discounts on items, the answer was ... no :(

Wait, it was on certain things - lenses and DSLRs, maybe he does get some off for P&amp;S... hmmmm.

What do you guys think what about sony HDRSR1 - the HD camcorder with HardDisk? Will HardDisk be a better chocie than tape or DVD?

Also I am also very interested in the G7 (and almost bought the S3), but it lacks the ability to save image as RAW format...I know I've only worked with Jpeg until now but will RAW give me more flexibility on photo editing? Or jpeg should be enough for an expected father that may get more into photoing in the future?

Audi Content: saw a gorgous (very clean and nicely waxed) Nogaro B5S4 with black rims outside Vaughan Mill last night...if you are here, very nice car man.

Hard drive based recorder...
- you'll end up needing to transfer the stuff over and archive it onto DVD or tape, so it'll come down to what's easier in the long term - buy a new tape and archive that and then digitize it over if you want to edit it?
- hard drive could fail, but then the camera could eat tapes for dinner also

Cameras....
- RAW - you will have the ability to work with the full data from the sensor, typically 12-bit colour depth vs 8-bit with JPG so you'll have a bit more room to work with especially if the image is slightly underexposed