Video camera recommendations?

[Suhit Gupta]

My parents are in the market for a video camera and unfortunately I don't have much first hand experience with the specific camera they want. They honestly don't want/need anything fancy... but they have two requirements -
1) they want something that is hard drive based
2) they want something that is small and light.

I was thinking about a price point of < US$500 though more is ok too. More hard drive space and better battery life over "cool"/fancy feature is preferrable.

So does anyone have any recommendations on good video cameras?

[Suhit Gupta]

My parents are in the market for a video camera and unfortunately I don't have much first hand experience with the specific camera they want. They honestly don't want/need anything fancy... but they have two requirements -
1) they want something that is hard drive based
2) they want something that is small and light.

I was thinking about a price point of < US$500 though more is ok too. More hard drive space and better battery life over "cool"/fancy feature is preferrable.

So does anyone have any recommendations on good video cameras?