Kind of takes the fun out of hacking one from CVS but if your looking for a pocket sized camcorder that is easy to use this would be a good choice. The pre-hacked version has one big advantage over the one you can get for a song, ok two big advantages other than the price. The ‘real’ version hold three times more video due to the 1 GB of memory inside and it comes with a built in USB connector.
Now, speaking as a guy that owns two of the DIY versions I can safely say that it can be a pain in the ass to futz with a homemade cable when I want to unload the movies. It’s also an equal pain using the software that you can find on the ‘Net that ‘fixes‘ the cheap cameras.
You might wonder why I own two of these cameras, well it’s so I can take 3D video with them. It’s fun and I’ll blog my exploits here pretty soon. I’ve also taken one of these cameras to Hawaii with me and got fairly good results. The 20 minute time restrictions keeps the shots short and trust me that’s a good thing. I normally keep one of these cameras with me just in case I spot something cool, you can’t beat it for size. I’d say that the Pure Digital camcorder would make a dandy gift for anyone looking for a take it where ever you go camera.

Pure Digital PSV-352 60 Minute Point-and-Shoot Camcorder