I personally chose a sony mini dvd camcorder. It's is much easier to get the video from the camera to the computer. All you do is take the dvd out of the camera and put it in the computer dvd drive.
As far as recording time, the mini dvd sucks. You can only record on 30 minute dvds. They have double sided dvds but you still have to flip the disk in the camera to record on the back side.
But for my wife, it is very simple to use. Most dvd players will play the dvd right out of the camera into the dvd player. Very nice feature.