Packed with features and closer to Adobe Premiere Elements, CyberLink PowerDirector 8 is close, but still not close enough.

Better HD image quality than you’d expect for such a small camcorder, but the price is still a little high.

Some powerful improvements – but you won’t get the most out of this unless it’s used alongside other Adobe apps.

Support for latest video formats and a batch-media encoder, but supporting apps have seen little upgrading.

A more mature version, taking it from sound cleaning and score creation to a powerful soundtrack composition tool.

A massive bundle worth the extra money, containing absolutely every tool a video producer might need.

The first Corel-branded VideoStudio adds one exciting new tool and lots of little improvements.

A great entry-level video editing app, but Montage is the only major addition unless you go for the Ultimate edition

Another big improvement, but this time it’s enough to make PowerDirector a worthy alternative to its mainstream rivals

A good price coupled with outstanding image quality – a good budget alternative to the Panasonic HDC-HS9

High resolution stills and laudable quality for the money, but image stabilisation isn’t the best

It may not be a looker, but in all other respects this Panasonic is a stunning camera

Huge storage for the money, but quality can’t match the more expensive models in this group

Good quality optics and lots of storage, but not the most portable of camcorders

Impressive optical quality and storage space, though a touch expensive

Great image quality and plenty of enthusiast features for a very reasonable price

The smallest, cheapest camera on test, but unsurprisingly, it also has the poorest image quality

Cheaper than the HF10, although you need to factor in the cost of storage cards

A new interface, smart albums, guided editing and photo merging keep Photoshop Elements ahead of the pack

Key improvements over the SD5 make this a still more enticing pocket HD camcorder prospect