Camcorder suggestions? (with obligatory hot girl pic)

[antidan444]

My wife asked for a video camera for Christmas. I have a $500-max budget (figuring on spending $400-500). Canon, Sony and Panasonic all have digital handheld camcorders in this range. I know very little about this stuff (basically just what I read about them on cameraworld.com) and am hoping some fellow OOTiots could point me in the best direction. Also, will I need any additional stuff that the camcorder won't come with? (I have a very basic DVD player and, from the looks of it, very basic movie-editing software that came with the CPU when I bought it more than 2 years back.)

Thanks for any help. Here's the reward. My wife and I had one of those "which celebrity would you most want to bang" discussions years ago. Hers was Fred Durst. Mine was ...