Summary: Excellent product! Have used for 6 months, and it's great!
Comment: Camera take exceptional pictures, has high quality in Hi8 mode. You can purchase long life batteries (>2500 MaH) that allow you to record for extremely long periods even using the LCD screen as your viewfinder. The image stabilization is very good, allowing videos to be hand held, but yielding a very stable picture. The internal lens cap feature is very nice, out of the way when shooting, yet nothing to lose. The resolution on the direct viewfinder is exceptional, and even though it is B/W it is very usable combined with the color LCD for playback. Having an internal viewfinder is extremely useful in bright light situations where the LCD is washed out/hard to see.
Overall an exceptional product, with a very good price. Has held up well in trips to Europe, Western USA, and New England, as well as for family gatherings.