Need help choosing a good miniDV digital camcorder with still capability

[newmom]

I really need some help, and I hope this is the right place to find it. I am trying to find a miniDV digital camcorder with the right features and I swear there's so many of them out there that after a while I go blind trying to research them all. Basically what's most important to me is that it have good digital still capability, like at least 1024x but preferably higher. I know they say not to use digital camcorders to take stills but I can't afford to buy the camcorder AND a new digital camera (mine's about 6 years old) and I really need both. I got swindled buying a used DXG camera on ebay, this thing records worse than some ancient camcorder out of the 70s (which is probably a topic for another time). I swear, my crappy cell phone takes better video than this thing. So I'm trying to avoid making that kind of mistake again.

If you can recommend a good digital camcorder for $400 or less that you know from experience takes good stills, please let me know. I understand resolution sizes but when they start saying something about stills having 340k pixels I get lost. I hate sounding like an idiot, I'm actually very good at my job but unfortunately I'm in a totally different line of business so the technology is moving faster than I can keep up with it.

Thanks for your help in advance!

[peter06]

You are right, images with a camcorder are never so good as a digicam.
Try to find a Sony DCR-HC96. Maybe you can get it for 400 dollar in the us.
It records 3MP images.