I'm looking to buy a camcorder for the first time. I've read rave reviews about the Flip Video Camera.Can I get this in Thailand, or something similar ??

Not easy to find the Flip pocket camcorders in Thailand. You can get the Samsung equivalent (has an optical zoom - so recommended) and the Sony Bloggie (the new Bloggie Touch is good) ..... but these pocket/web camcorders are not that much better than a decent mobile phone and often not as good as a stills camera with video capability.

For not much more money you can get a proper video camera with a huge optical zoom capability and much better lens. Look for a 'last years model' and you could a good deal. Even a 720p proper video camera will outperform a 1080p HD pocket camcorder. Also consider that HD is not easy to store and play on TV's unless you have a Blue Ray recorder or want to run everything from your lap top.

I'd say you should only go for Flip/Bloggie etc if you want the ease of connection to a PC for Facebook and Youtube downloading and want to take short/basic video for social sites etc. If you want to do better quality video - then get a video camera with a decent lens and sensor (or even 3 sensors for professional quality).

Hope this helps?

I have a Flip I use in class all the time. While it is not fancy, it does the job just fine for what I use it for. Moving video from the camera to the computer is extremely easy.

T