Help me choose a camcorder for my dad

[DingDingDao]

So my Dad told me and my sis that he wants a new camcorder for his birthday. I'd like to get him a nice MiniDV camcorder, not too pricey (read: less than $600). It doesn't need a whole lot of features--I just want something that will shoot nice video out of the box without too much tweaking. I've been looking at the Sony DCR-HC40. Any comments or suggestions? Thanks all.