What is the best camcorder for buying?

Can anyone suggest what to look for when buying a camcorder?

• I'm planning to buy a camcorder but I don't know what should I look for in buying one. What specifications do I need to consider before buying one.

• Answer:

  Two things i would look for in a camcorder search, MIC jack and the ability to turn any Easy or Auto functions off. Having those those attributes will allow you to shoot outstanding videos. One I am dead against, although this is your choice, is a HD camcorder. A HD camcorder that uses MiniDV tape for storage would do OK, but a HD camcorder using any other form of media storage will interpolate the video, meaning in a 40 second clip, for argument sales, lets say there are 1000 frames in that clip. Interpolating means, in that clip, 800 of the frames did not come from the lens, but rather from the internal electronics of the camcorder, using a complex formula to 'draw what it thinks is right', based on the two frames adjoining that from the lens. A complete nightmare to edit Then consider this, any HD camcorder will require an upgrade to your computer. HD video editing requires a Core 4 processor, a 1 GB graphics card and a sound card, both cards have to support Direct X® 9 or better. This you need to know also. Video take up large chunks of Hard drive space. My machine has 8 TB, and at times , that is not enough.