Promised Post

Here's my camera news. My brother is a photographer in his work each day. He is not into point and shoot cameras or camcorders because he uses prosumer gear. But he was so helpful because he understands all the features and really helped my research. I used Consumer Reports the oldfashioned way - photo copying at the library (great comparison charts), CNET (love their video reviews), newegg, and dpreview (which has good forums you can search and post questions in). There are no perfect cameras and there isn't one right one for everyone. A lot of it comes down to personal choice and what features are important to you.
I followed in the footsteps of my friends Kim and Scott and bought a Canon PowerShot SD630. They've been using it this past year with their new baby and have loved it. I just had to have the 3.0 LCD when I saw it. You can read the pros at the the links. From what I can tell the cons are that there is no viewfinder (which can be an issue if there is glare on the LCD), no manual controls, and the big LCD sucks up some extra juice. The benefits far outweighed these issues to me. All the Canon PowerShots are great cameras. With it I bought a case, a 1.0 GB card, and an extra battery.
For the camcorder I bought a Canon Optura 50. This camera has been discontinued and is becoming harder to get by the day. When it originally came out it was a higher end camera and was about $800. Now with the closeout they are available for between $400-500 while they last, so it's a great opportunity. Other cameras in the $500 range do not compare. I bought it, and everything else, at Samy's. It was very fun to shop in their 4 story flagship store. This nice thing about buying at a professional camera store is knowing that you can return things with ease and benefiting from the incredible expertise of the sales staff. We came in with prices we had printed from online retailers and they were very kind to try to match that. Anyway, back to the camcorder. You can read all the great things about it at the link and see a lineup here. The cons are that it has the main control toggle set behind the LCD which is very awkward and when you tilt the LCD you can't use the controls, it has difficulty in very low light conditions, and some people complain about the motor noise. We will see if I can navigate these issues or not.
My sales person included an upgraded Canon bag that we had picked out, a great tripod (which as a single mom I think will be important), and a set of tapes. We also purchased an extra battery. I still need to buy a firewire for the computer and a card reader. Both of these cameras are equipped for the voltage in China and I just need a plug adaptor.
I strongly considered a CanonPowerShot 700, which is a great camera, but I wanted that big LCD and loved the feel of an ELPH, so pocket/purse sized.
I know a lot of people love Sony camcorders. My hesitation with them is that for the comparable ones in my range they had plastic docking stations that you must use when recharging or interfacing with the computer and I didn't want to mess with that. I like being able to plug the camera right into the wall or computer without being sure I have the dock with me.
A word of caution here. The newest thing in camcorders are the ones that record straight to DVD. For me it is very important to be able to edit my daughter's footage and produce a great video of the trip. Some of these DVD camcorders make you finalize the disc before removing it from the camera and then there is no more editing. With others you can edit but due to the compression needed to get it onto the disc you lose a lot of the quality, it is quite destructive.
I love the idea of the new cameras that load your pictures online wirelessly, but I didn't even get into that, I'll have to be a late adopter.
Finally, there are a couple of adoption video sites with great tips and information. One is Red Thread Stories and the other is Pergamon Design. Watching their samples is helpful in getting ideas of what to shoot. They suggest that you get landmark shots to help tell the story (i.e. flight info., building signs, etc.) It's nice to have a little check list for this once in a lifetime opportunity.
Now to see if I can actually operate a camcorder!