In any case, I didn't find a hidef camera like I was looking for, but I did find the JVC GZ-MC500. What a cool looking camera, absolutely tiny, records onto CF and SD cards, and has three hires CCDs (for much better color than single CCD video cameras).

While I like my Canon GL1, I just hate tape. Tape is evil. Imagine a super thin strip of cheap plastic with a bunch of grains of rust glued to it (why do you think tape is brown). Then imagine going along and trying to twist magnetic fields in each of those grains, then sticking the entire thing on top of a cabnet somewhere where it cycles between hot and cold temperatures a couple thousand times, then putting those spools of plastic and rust back into a player and expecting to get the original bits back out. Its like raking a zen garden knowing its going to hail in an hour.

Could be worse, at least its not digital data. One wrong move there and you're data is just gone (punctuated by the sound of the tape drive seeking back and forth, hoping for a better outcome on the 80th pass: zeeshk, zuuurk, zeeshk, zuuurk). You know its going to stop in a moment, but not because its finally gotten the data–it's finally given up and you can forget about that data on the drive. Its just gone. Anyway, flash is the way to go for temporary storage, and once I've assembled a collection of the kids dancing about in their pajamas with socks hanging on their ears, I can burn it all away for safekeeping onto a twenty cent DVD-R where I'll probably still be able to read it 20 years from now.

If I wasn't so broke, in need of other expensive stuff like a new laptop and maybe a new car, and in flux work-wise; I'd so be getting one of these.