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Tape is becomming obsolite. I would consider the HF100 listed below before this one.

But #1, FREE monopod!
/and not the one the priest offered me in 3rd grade

double post

How is this a deal? Just go to Amazon, they're regular list prices are cheaper than these!
VIXIA HF100 - $549
VIXIA HF30 - $597

This really is a great deal. I got this camcorder a few weeks ago for $620 with 2 Dell coupons. It was $588 w/o tax. Newegg has no tax nor shipping.

#4, I think the other Vixias are hard drive or SD card based. AVCHD is really hard to use for anything more than very BASIC editing. (Also, I heard that not all editing software accepts every camcorders AVCHD, remember JVC Everio?)

For some, that is fine, but you still have to store your video. External hard drives are not that reliable for the long haul. Same with SD. Minidv tapes are cheap, durable, holds 1 hour of the least compressed, digital format. Also, the picture of my HD30 is really great. I don't fool with HD tapes because I can't tell any difference when viewing compared to standard def. tapes.

One complaint. The eye piece is fixed, which means you may need a tripod or that monopod if you don't use the LCD (try to use one anyway).

I've done a alot of research before deciding to stay with minidv for now and especially the HD30. I think in a couple of years they will make AVCHD more compatible with various editing software.

Absolutely right, #5. Check PCWorld Mag (Dec 2008 issue)and see this one picked by Editor (Best Buy).

The following video-editing software features support for the AVCHD format:

Adobe Premiere Pro (from version CS4 onward)
Adobe Premiere Elements (from version 7 onward)
Apple's Final Cut Express 4, Final Cut 01, and iMovie '08 (Bundled with all new macs) do not support editing of AVCHD clips directly. Imported AVCHD clips are auto-converted into the Apple Intermediate Codec format, .[19]
ArcSoft's TotalMedia Extreme
Avid Xpress Pro, Avid Media Composer
Corel's Ulead DVD MovieFactory 6
CyberLink's PowerDirector 6
Grass Valley's Edius 5.0
Nero 7 Ultra Edition Enhanced and Nero 8 Ultra Edition are software suites which contains the AVCHD editor, found in Nero Vision. Also included in this suite is Nero Showtime, which plays AVCHD files natively. Edited video can also be burned to DVD discs in AVCHD format for playback on hardware players or in Blu-ray format.
Pinnacle's Studio Plus 11 & 12, now even better with 12.1
Sony Vegas 7.0e
Vegas Pro 8
Vegas Movie Studio Platinum 8
Vegas Movie Studio Platinum 9
TMPGEnc 4.0 XPress.

Tape has higher quality (less compression) than the flash-based or hard-drive based solutions. There's way more surface area on a tape to record to than a hard drive, and Flash drives are tiny compared to even a hard drive.

All the data coming in has to go somewhere, it either gets saved or discarded (via lossy compression).

That said, tape is far less convenient for the average consumer. I love my hi def HDD camcorder for personal use, but I need to get a tape one for some work I'm doing.

kathy_augusto has some interesting info. Note, however, that Final Cut's intermediate format is a comletely uncompressed format which eats up enormous amounts of disk space. And you cannot use AVCHD files that you've already downloaded to your hard drive. You have to load them back onto the camera and then pull it directly off camera via the the FireWire connection in order for Final Cut to put it into its input bins.

Altogether this makes that work harder instead of easier, and less space-efficient instead of more.

I have no idea how good or bad the other editors' handling of AVCHD is, this is just my experience with Final Cut.

Incidentally, I ordered this exact camera from B&H Photo last week for $620 with no freebies. Too bad.

Hey #7, that's what I thought.
The thing I learned was that there was no point getting a "hi-def" hard drive camcorder only to have to lose the convenience and the quality of my video by encoding to re-encode at least 3 times before getting to dvd. And the longer your video, the more problems. Just check out the pissed off owners of pinnicle 12, and sony movie studio on their forums and amazon.

The thing that was stated over and over was that they "thought it was compatible or usable with ACVHD". Even the Avid Media Composer, which is the gold standard for editing (sorry FCP,Vegas,& Prem.Pro)really is not easily used.

Most of the product you listed are "supported" but with a price. I am by no means an expert, but what I've seen is that they tout "yes we support ACVHD in to you computer, but you have to buy special pluggins or convert it to this, and then reimport it to that, before you get what you want.

My advise is decide what editing softwareyou will use and what you really want to do with your video & find out HOW ACVHD is supported by said software. e, what changes am I going to have to go through to get my video done.
Google is my friend. Sorry about the long post.

This is the best high-def consumer camera available right now. The tapes offer the BEST video quality you can get....not quite as convenient but HDV IS more "usable" than AVCHD as far as the computer side is concerned right now. Can't go wrong with this camera.

Sounds good, but the price is still way up. MiniDV takes to long to capture into computer as well.

I hear you Joe. You have to be organized, patient & disciplined with minidv tapes. Or you will have them all over the place like me. The alternative is you really just have one shot with AVCHD. You've got get your video off the camera before you run out of space. Don't bump the camera too hard. Trust me, I'm ready for a hard drive camcorder, but those prices are dropping much faster than minidv. Maybe someone that edits with Hi-def AVCHD can let us know on this forum how their editing program is working out. Great info. you all.