Mini-DVD

As the name suggests, these camcorders record onto a small DVD disc — 8cm versus a regular DVD's 12cm diameter. The great — and some would say, the only — advantage of DVD camcorders is the ability to burn a copy of your masterpiece straight away. However, while the reduced disc size ensures that these cameras aren't built only for giants, it greatly reduces storage capacity. A full-sized single-sided, single-layer DVD holds 4.7GB, whereas a similar mini-DVD only holds 1.4GB. That means you'll only be able to cram in a paltry 20 minutes of standard-def footage, or 10 minutes of high-def, at high quality.

Since the advent of affordable hard-disk camcorders we've been loathe to recommend mini-DVD models. The tide may be turning somewhat though with Sony's new DVD camcorders being hybrid models that can record video to flash memory — some models even have built-in flash memory. Recording to flash memory has the advantage of allowing simple editing functions, like scene deletion, that are usually denied to DVD camcorder users. This means that users can finally choose the scenes to burn to disc and can make multiple copies of Uncle Jack's 90th to hand around.

cnet.com