Camcorder purchase decision - Panasonic SDR-S150

Recently I bought a Panasonic Camcorder with the intention to film on my son birthday.

I did quite a bit of reading comparing the following

1) Mini-DV vs DVD vs SD card vs HDD.
2) Single CCD vs 3 CCD
3) Digital stabilizer vs Optical stabilizer
4) HDV vs MPEG-2 vs MPEG-4 vs motion JPEG vs AVCHD
5) Different brand like Sony, JVC, Sanyo, Canon and Panasonic

Below is the summary of my reading on reviews
Mini-DV is good for long storage, camcorder using such storage gives long battery life. The quality using mini-dv is also of the best quality. However, the downloading to PC and transfer of format to DVD would be hassle for novice like me. DVD looks like a good option to me initially, but the price does not come cheap. I also heard that fast movement may also affect the recording to the DVD. the start-up time for DVD is also slow. This is important for father like me who want to catpure my son with a shortest start-up time if possible. HDD gives the longest recording time, it is more expensive and is heavy. SD has the shortest recording time, but it is the lightest and cheapest option if you go for the standard models. New SD camcorder support SDHC format which currently has up to 8GB of storgae space. According to the SDHC roadmap, it is supposed to go up to 32GB. To me, 4 GB on SP recording time would gives me more than 2hrs of recording. Thus if I opt of 8GB or more, it is as good as HDD but lighter and cheaper. In additional there is not moving part and it is silent during recording. For this, I decided on SD storage.

Single CCD or 3CCD, the decision is much easier, 3CCD gives better and natural color. It comes with a price though. I read that 3CCD seems to perform poorer during low lights conditions. Anyway, I still prefer better quality picture and belive that "low light conditions" could means really low lights which could junle or dark room with a candle lighted up. I do not go into such conditions and believe, I could light more candles to overcomes it. :)

Digital or optical stabilizer. Without much thoughts, optical is my choice. It performance is much better than digital.

HDV vs MPEG-2 vs MPEG-4 vs motion MPEG vs AVCHD. Format decision is tough. HDV format camcorder is expensive. MPEG-2 is common and is the format use by DVD, thus not translation required if it is recorded in MPEG-2. MPEG-4 was said to give the same quality of MPEG-2 but of a smaller file size. This format is not common yet. Motion JPEG is what you see on a JPEG file with moving picture. editable but bigger file size. AVCHD is new format supported by some manufacturer but some said HDV is winning the war for high defination format.

Sony is the defacto brand in camcorder. In recent years, other brand has been catching up in term of feautre, quality and price. JVC is usually priced cheaper than most brands. Canon has been a good catch up in camcorder after their success in digital camera. Panasonic is new player in this game but throw in good features, partner with Leica and is priced reasonable. Sanyo is a interesting player and has product that is well price and has interesting model with good features.
It was hard decision looking at brand, but since I decided on SD storage, Sony is out as they do not have such camcorder that I know of. JVC review is average to poor. I spoke to shop owner, they told me the picture is a little yellowish - meaning quality is not that good. Canon TX1 has the SD storage but a lot fo review was on the still picture instead of video. My focus is on video since I already own a canon 350D already. Nonetheless this is still an interesting model from Canon, with HD recording on motion JPEG. As mentioned it eats up a lot of memory space. The price is also cheap among its peer on similar model. Sanyo HD2 was given good review on its form factor, able to attached external mic and price was only slightly higher than Canon TX1. HD2 is records using MPEG-4 which saves space compared to MPEG-2. It uses digital instead of optical stabilizer though. Some people said if you need to save to DVD, MPEG-4 has to be converted to MPEG-2 and there should be losses.
If not for the reviewed on HD2 video quality, my decision should be HD2. I read review on Panasonic SDR-S150. www.camcorderinfo.com gives good review on this model but asia.cnet.com gives poor review on this. The review is very drastic, one of them has to be wrong.
S150 has 3CCD, optical stabilizer, however, it only has internal mic. Its mic volume was adjustable though. The price of S150 was the most expensive among its peers. It is also the model that was out in the market longer than its peers. I believe there must be reason behind it.

It was tough to decide on brand, during my selection for brand using SD card, the following model was shortlisted

1) Canon TX1
2) Sanyo Xacti HD2
3) Panasonic SDR-S150

After much reading, I decided to go for SDR-S150. Though the price is about $50 different from its peers, the grip is not as good as HD2 and it does not support HD format. It supports wide view format 16:4 though. To me, I need something with fast start up time, light and take good quality video of my kid. I doubt I would be taking hours of videos on my son, anyway if I do, I just need to get more SD card.

In case, you are also in dilemma like me before, you could take my review as part of your consideration. I shall post some videos in different conditions and still picture for your comparison to other models and brands. It may helps you to decide better...