Anyone clued up on Panasonics AV100B, could you recommend it to a techno-retard or would I need a degree in Rocket Science to get the best out of it?.

well it is small and all but i would be worrying about the lcd and how well it was made if you were to bumb it on somethign just wouldnt want it to crack thats just me and im paranoid. Second it takes multimedia cards not mini dv which for me is a minus because with a 60 minute cassete which can cost about 3 dollars u get great quality(partial to camera) but with that camera you are going to be recording onto cards which are much more exspensive about 150 for a 512mb card and you wont get as much time to record and the quality still wont be as good as with mini dv. hope that helps

I know less than nothing about camcorders so I am open to suggestion on makes and models. <BR>Just looking for something idiot proof easy to use and decent quality.

are u looking for something very small or what. I cna recomend the Canon ZR series. OR the sony TRV 38 or anything below that. Look at <a href="http://www.cnet.com" target="_blank">www.cnet.com</a> under the camcoders link. Look at some review but dont base ur entire purchasing scheme on them. There not always right about some things

Thanks I'll take a look

That's an interesting cam but since it recording in Mpeg2 I'm not sure what you'll be able to edit the video with. If it comes with an mpeg2 editor it's going to be very simple. As Nick says stick with a miniDV unit.