I read about camcorders before I bought this one. I waited and waited for the price to be right and then jumped at it. I've spent about $200 on camcorder accessories, including a boom mic, zoom lens, extra batteries, etc. In my experience, this little camcorder is remarkably stingy when it comes to battery power. I wasn't close to exhaustion. Yes, smart batteries cost about $90 each, but I only needed the one that came with it. Dummy backups are cheap. The training in handling the video cameraβ¦