What kind of Camcorder is the best?

What kind of camcorder is best and easiest for shooting and editing videos on the laptop?

• Hello everyone, I'm a musician and I want to start shooting music videos (nothing fancy really, quite basic in terms of music videos) and I was wondering what kind of camcorder to get for this. I have a panasonic vdr- d160 but when i shot a video it goes to a little dvd thing, then to edit it on the computer i had to convert the VOB file to one that windows movie maker would recognise and when i did the quality really faded and lines appeared on the video and stuff. Basically I'm scared to buy a new camcorder in case I get one that does this again! So would you help me, I don't have a big budget, say around 100 pounds ish, I just need to know what kind of camcorders you use to simply shoot a vid, upload it to the laptop (windows), edit it, and have a bloody video! HD? SD? minivid? I have no idea what these things are, please help! And try not to get too technical I just want to know what kind to get and maybe point me in the direction of any DECENT ones, I'm not trying to win a VMA, they're fixed anyway so there's no point. Thank you, James.

• Answer:

  Consumer level HD camcorders have 4 problems. 1) Blurry, fuzzy, out of focus areas closely around people in videos taken by consumer level HD camcorders. 2) Any movement, even a wave or lifting an arm, while in front of a recording consumer level HD camcorder, results in screen ghosts and artifacts being left on the video track, following the movement. Makes for bad video, sports videos are unwatchable. 3) These Consumer level HD camcorders all have a habit of the transferred to computer files are something you need to convert, thus losing your HD quality, to work with your editing software. 4) Mandatory maximum record times - 1 hour, 30 minutes, 8 minutes, 3 minutes – four different times advertised as maximum record time for some consumer level HD camcorders. No event I have ever been to is that short. Either take multiple camcorders or pack up with out getting the end of the event on video. With a MiniDV tape camcorder, record 60 or 90 minutes ( camcorder settings), 90 seconds or less to change a tape and record for 60 or 90 more and repeat till you run out of tapes. You can get a Canon ZR960 for $250. It is a MiniDV tape camcorder, has a Mic jack. You need a firewire (IEEE1394) card ($25 to 30) for the computer and a firewire cable (less than 10) to be able to transfer video to your computer. To say this is not HD, think about this. It would cost in excess of $3500 to get a HD camcorder that could equal the video Quality of a $250 Canon MiniDV tape camcorder. By using a MiniDV tape camcorder, no conversion is necessary to be able to use the flick on Windows Movie maker. Furthermore, you would want a MiniDV tape camcorder for so you can get the movements of your hands and drummer beats in a good fashion, something most Consumer level HD camcorders have great trouble with.