Camcorder Thoughts???

Take a look at Flip Video cameras. They are easy to use and take a pretty fair quality video.

Many "still" cameras take excellent videos for YouTube. Lighting is important for layout videos regardless of video or still. If you go to Camcorderinfo.com they have many reviews and articles. I see they are also reviewing "still" cameras for their video recording skills. Good Luck.
Dan
Cell phones while they are getting better aren't quite there yet.

I got a great camera about a year ago - the only thing I had to do was get more batteries and an extra memory card - digital batteries go pretty fast and I needed one extra as I couldn't get through a football game recording without one. Very fast and full digital....Canon Vixia HF R10.

I used to be a Sony camera guy but had bad luck with them - but this Canon, for the price - is excellent! Search via Cnet for reviews - this one gets "very good" from that site and "average" from users. But for what I paid for it - I am very happy.

I got a Vivatar digital at Rite Aid for $15 after all their rebates and up rewards stuff. Does fine for YouTube stuff and fits nicely on a O scale flat car!
I save the big bucks for trains!

while you can still get Flip cameras, cisco is out of the business of making them.

canon vixia is an excellent choice. i use a HFS10 myself.

I bought a Sony camcorder at Wal-mart for $300 about 3-4 years ago. What persuaded me was that it has lenses by Carl Zeiss of Germany, a very reputable company. It uses the older tape style. There was one issue with the heads, which I replaced with used ones (because I use the camera a lot). I used a local shop for the repair, which cost $100. That was a year ago and I still use it very much. There have been no issues with any other parts of the camera.

Best, Mark