Perfect for those with a real movie-making bent, the 60GB HD delivers five hours recording, while 3CCD technology is a budding director’s wet dream. It also has a full range of manual controls, too.

www.jvc.co.uk

Maxim rating: 4/5

The world’s first Blu-ray camcorder is not exactly dinky, but it does record onto hard drive as well as disc. Cram four hours of HD footage onto the drive and use the onboard editor to burn a Blu-ray disc.

www.hitachidigitalmedia.com

Maxim rating: 3/5

Less like a conventional cam and more like something out of a sci-fi movie, its ray-gun-like design makes it easy to use. And as well as making movies, it also works as a 4MP digital still camera.

www.sanyo.co.uk

Maxim rating: 3/5

Panasonic’s SD9 stores movies on removable SD cards. You can capture up to one hour of full-quality HD video on a 4GB card. It also features a face-detection mode, which is both clever and powerful.

www.panasonic.co.uk

Maxim rating: 5/5

Record onto hard drive or iPod with a massive 15 hours of high-def recording thanks to AVCHD compression technology. A DIGIC DV processor makes sure the colours are vivid, while it's easy to point and shoot.

www.canon.co.uk

Maxim rating: 4/5