Best cameras / camcorders for the mountain

I've got a Canon SD1000, which is similar to Pete's small camera (about the size of a pack of cigarettes). It's a 7.1 mp, so the still picture quality is excellent, and you can still get decent size (smaller) photos out of the 3x optical/12x digital zoom. It takes decent video as well, though it gets grainy fast if you use the digital zoom.

I'm about to purchase this camcorder , which is a similar model to the one Pete's friend (and mine) uses. Small enough to easily fit in a chest pocket and takes excellent video, from what I've seen. My wife will probably use the Canon, to keep the good quality stills coming in.

Greenrider,

I currently use the Panasonic SDR camcorder after using the Pentax & Canon SD cameras. Answering the question about the best setup is subjective, of course, but I prefer the camcorder route for outdoor adventuring. The Panasonic is compact, fits in my jacket pocket, turns on quickly and w/ a 2GB card, captures both movement and sound. The 10x zoom is nice (and greater zoom is always desirable) but I like footage where I'm not constantly zooming in/out the whole time. The image stability is decent, I can take footage following another skier/boarder and it turns out fairly watchable. (That said, I don't think it's in the realm of high quality helmet cams.) Having taken video using the Canon SD cameras, I think the video quality from Panasonic's 3 CCDs is much crisper and clearer. But the stills definitely suck, no question about it. And the last thing I'll say about the Panasonic is that the camcorder has been absolutely bomber for the past 2+ years. It's been all over the world, dropped in snow, sand ... and it's continued to work great. The same cannot be said about my last Canon's fragile LCD screen ...

Thanks for the feedback everyone.

powtoy -- I'm really interested in your comparison of the SD image stabilization vs. the camcorder. I have used a SD750IS while riding and I found that the image stabilization just couldn't cut it (maybe I'm just not a very good snowboarder). Anyway, it would have really jittery effects when I was moving even with the image stabilization. Is the camcorder much better in terms of the stabilization? Can you give me some sort of idea of the difference? Like if the SD image stabilization is like a 3 out of 10 what would you rate the camcorder?

Greenrider,

I'd rate the Panasonic camcorder's stability as 6 out of 10.  It's not going to produce as smooth of a picture while riding as say, a Viosport helmet cam with an HD camcorder, but you mentioned price being one criteria. I haven't discovered a better solution yet in terms of small package and decent video.  If anyone knows of any, please post 'em. 

I couldn't find old footage while moving so maybe you're not the only one with riding issues ... but here's a comparison of the overall results.  Video 1 uses the Panasonic camcorder and Video 2 uses the Canon SD camera.  The clips work only with IE.  With the Panasonic, you get some jittery effects due to the digital 200x zoom when stability gets turned off.  Also, both clips use a similar low compression for web users, whereas on a DVD, the quality can be much cleaner.