Camcorder Advice -

I wouldn't get it repaired I would buy a new camcorder sooo many to choose from I finallly bought mine it was under $300.00 I bought mine from Samsclub.com it is digital uses sd cards has a 4gb built in memory it also will take still shots while recording it is small compact with a 3 inch screen no view finder that is obsolete on new digital camcorders easy to use.
I would opt for the HD digital camcorder mine offers 2 features full hd or standard hd holds upto a 32 gb sd card which is nice they are expensive but I have an 8 gb sd card & will last 2+ hrs till I either erase what isn'tneeded or download onto a cd

Believe it or not, I have a Sony cam corder that uses a small tape. The battery finally died around Christmas and I had to buy a new one. This cam corder is sooooo old! But we use it all the time and money is short and we really can't afford to replace anytime soon. When it does break down, I want a digital recorder. I think it's the best way to go as it is cumbersome to record our stuff on tape and then I have to turn around and transfer it to dvd. It would be easier to do it a better way...but this is what I have so I deal with it.

I guess 3 years old isn't very old and if you were to go out and buy something you really want, how much more than $170 would you have to spend? I guess it comes down to personal decision and what you can afford, and what is easiest to use.

The "Flip.

Not expensive and good reviews.

Go to Amazon, and you can see it there and read the many reviews of it.

I posted a question about my camera breaking and I ended up getting it fixed and was happy it was.Never really got an answer here. Anyway,we had it fixed through the place where we bought it and they were very nice and helpful. We also get a year of additional warranty. We really didn't want to get a new camcorder and it was about the same age. Happy we did. I didn't really want to fool around with a new thing, an extra expense and try to figure out how the old tapes will pan out . Don't know if that will help you.

I love my flip cam. Very small, easy to use, the USB part pops right out of the side to plug into your computer for charging or downloading video, so no cords to hassle with, comes with its own software that is easy to use. You can even take a single frame from a video and save it as a pic. Mine holds 2 hrs of video, although they make a less expensive version that holds 1 hour. And you get get it for less than the cost of repairing your old one. Totally worth buying!