What Video Camera Should I Get For Recording Family Interviews?

I'm probably biased, but I would push you towards the Sony. The worst thing when I was pricing video cameras a year ago was not seeing examples of the kind of footage the camera is capable of taking. So here are some videos (obviously the quality is a little lower because of converting for YouTube, but they give you a pretty good idea of what you'd be looking at) I've taken using my http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B004H8FN8K/metafilter-20/ref=nosim/. http://youtu.be/Kuh9z2_09sA?t=22m31s recently, shot using the HD setting. The audio and video are completely unedited, and the room had no special lighting - in fact, it had florescent lights. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfwasJo8sm4 in my bedroom, which has one crappy lamp and no natural lighting - and my audio is taken from the camera too. My face is the one on top; the bottom face is screencaptured from a Google Hangout, so you can see the difference in quality. http://youtu.be/8Z3iLEPkaN0?t=6m18s. Sorry it's a little nauseating when I'm walking around, but again, seeing what it can do outside with natural lighting is also helpful I think. And that video I had to lower the quality to get it to upload to YT. Speaking of...the other factor to think about is what you're going to do with the video files. Using HD video takes up a TON of space - the files I import from my camera are between 2-5 GB per hour of video. Unless you have a huge hard drive anyway, you should consider the cost of an external hard drive to store video. Also, how are you editing the video? Those files are also pretty huge, and after a year of doing semi-professional video editing, I've filled nearly 2 TB of my source files and finished products. That's not including the project files, which I typically delete after the video is finished. When I was pricing cameras, I decided to get the best quality equipment I could afford. That was the Sony - at the time, they were selling it new for $700. I got it used on Amazon for $300. Totally worth it. I think if you get a camera you love and start shooting video, you have a better sense of what other stuff you'll need to get the product you want. Hope that helps.

Perform some searches on YouTube using the camera models you are interested in as the keywords and you should find videos that people have taken with those cameras. Look until you find quality that you would be happy with. For the interviews do the same thing, search out amateur interviews and see what looks good (body position, lighting, etc). Experiment a bit once you get the camera and use the interweb to iron out the kinks until you're feeling confident. If this is just going to be a 1-day shoot you might be able to rent or borrow some nice gear, or even hire an amateur with a nice portfolio to set up and shoot the vids for around the same price as buying the stuff.

For interview, sound is almost more important than image. Your image might look great, but if the sound is unintelligible then what's the point? If you use a camera's on board mic, the quality will be very poor. You should invest in a lavalier, which is a small microphone you can clip on to a shirt. They are by far the most convenient mic for interviews. There are a lot in the sub $100 dollar range that are decent, and would work fine for you. Check reviews on Youtube with sample audio. Just make sure that any camera you buy has a 3.5mm mic input. Also a lot of cameras have what's called "automatic gain control" (AGC), which can absolutely ruin your sound, so make sure that's disabled if possible. What a lot of people do nowadays is use a small audio recorder like the http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B003QKBVYK/metafilter-20/ref=nosim/ and syncing the sound, either manually or with software like https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CCkQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.redgiant.com%2Fproducts%2Fall%2Fpluraleyes%2F&ei=zDxPU9_NNca40QGGkICQAg&usg=AFQjCNGjx5RwCvWOtm8p1Z3ECzgnZAYoiQ&sig2=73iB6uFSBg44CrI00AKcfA&bvm=bv.64764171,d.dmQ. If you have a camera you already like you might want to go with that route; the sound quality will be better and you will have more control of the audio. The trade off of course is that that's more labor intensive, but like I said, you should be aiming for good sound.

Thanks everyone - that is very helpful so far. Can anyone give more specific camera recommendations? So far, it sounds like the two I linked to in the post are a "no" and this http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B006UMMP2I/metafilter-20/ref=nosim/ was suggested.

I've been in a similar spot for our HR department wanting to record interviews for later review. As silly as it may sound, the http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/832460-REG/Logitech_960_000764_C920.html delivers really impressive video with basically no effort. I compared it to my hacked GH2 and was amazed at how good it was. It does incredibly well in difficult lighting (as it is a webcam) and the 1080p video is just astonishing. You could invest in that and a http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B002VA464S/metafilter-20/ref=nosim/ and have an A/V setup that will knock your socks off. There are a lot of samples all over YouTube, but http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=il_1y58nFQ8 should give you an idea of the quality that can be had with almost no lighting effort.

Ended up buying the Canon Vixia HF R300 and an Amazon Basics tripod. The camera microphone is good enough that an external mike doesn't seem to be needed. Thanks everyone!