..."you going on vacation soon? having grandkids? thats usually why people buy video cameras... "
Yep. Video stuff you'll want to look at 20 years from now. Neices, nephews, even <gasp> your parents! How about the cars you drive, friends, places you hang out...
After we had our first baby, we rented camcorders now and then. When we had our second, I bought a camcorder. I have more video of our first son as a baby than the second! That's because we tried like crazy to get our money's worth out of that camcorder we rented. We would just set it on a tripod and let it shoot while we had a picnic or whatever. What the hell, tape is cheap!