Video camera advice

I'm shopping for a video camera for a friend. I'm looking at the flip cameras right now.

The top priority is ease of using & uploading video. I want something that makes it really simple & take very little time.

Do the flip cameras make it easy to create dvds? Do you need seperate software to burn the dvd? They have a PC & I think it has windows XP.

I bought a camcorder a couple of years ago & found uploading to be such a PITA I stopped using it.

I'm also wondering if using a regular camera that has video would be simplier. I think they'd just do fairly short clips. It's for expecting parents.

I have been wondering about this too as we are looking to purchase one to record our wedding and pre wedding activities. I know some of the Flip cameras have limited recording time and do not have the option for an SD card to switch out so you would have to take time out to download if you are close to the 120 minutes. However 120 minutes is a pretty long time for recording.

Also does anyone know if there is optical zoom on those or only digital?

Right now I'm looking at the canon g11 camera.

Canon G11 Review: Makes You Feel Like a Real Photographer (Almost) - Canon g11 review - Gizmodo

scroll down & you can see some video footage.

My thoughts on filming babies & children is you don't need hours of footage. Who watches an entire birthday party? I think it would be nice to take some pictures, switch over to video & film a few minutes & then go back to pictures. I'm interested to hear what others do for filming their children. I get the impression that most video never leaves the computer or gets watched again.

Some of my friends take quick videos with their phone of their babies & they are so much fun to watch. Just like a 30 second clip of them being adorable.

So right now, i'm leaning towards a camera with video, but I just started my research...

We have a flip: Amazon.com: Flip UltraHD Camcorder, 120 Minutes (Black): Camera & Photo. I love it! We have taken so many videos of Penelope that I know I will cherish. It's so easy to use and upload vidoes. You can extract the videos from Flip to your computer and save/burn them. You can also capture screen shots from videos and save them as images. They aren't the best quality but it's still fun sometimes. You can also edit videos and put clips together. I love the email feature too. Simple and easy. Worth every penny! I can PM you my YouTube channel if you want to check any of them out.

We got a Flip as a wedding gift and love it. Our friends even had our logo put on it, you can put your own pic or pattern to personalize it. We take short clips of our friends playing sports and of our neice and nephew. I really like it becuase you don't have to have a cord to upload or even charge (as long as you have a computer nearby). I actually bought a mac for the ease of editing videos, but it works on our PC as well. We send them to the grandparents, upload to facebook and picasa so I know they get shared and watched a couple of times. Also we have an AppleTV that plays our itunes on our big screen so we show those kinds of videos and stuff when we have people over to the house.

As for camera and video, I like having both because DH will take pics and I can video at the same time. The Flip is small enough to fit in your pocket so you can take it almost anywhere. And for us we have a point and shoot camera for the crazy times and a Nikon D60 for the important pics. Does your frined already have a nice camera? If so, then the Flip is the way to go. If not, maybe check out the smaller cameras that also offer video.

I feel like I just rambled on for 10 minutes. Let me know if you have any questions.

i have a sony handycam with a touch screen and i LOVVVE it!! it's small and so easy to use. and uploading is super quick. all you do is plug it into the computer and you're good to go