Best HQ, HD Camcorder/Camera?

Roland Stampley: Panasonic HDC TM80K is compact, light and, most importantly, records great HD videos and digital photos. It features an unbelievably clear night recording under very low light conditions, perfect daylight recording and fantastic shake-free zoom capabilities. The unit's functions are very easy to understand and to use. The transfer between the unit and my Mac Book Pro was seamless, using IMovie program.

Bob Nakamoto: 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 losi! ng your HD quality, to work with your editing software. 4) Mandatory maximum record times - 1 hour, 30 minutes, 8 minutes, 3 minutes â€" 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. Consumer level HD camcorders interpolate the video. This means they take one frame, make up the next 4 or 5 frames, take a frame and repeat this, over and over, for the remainder of the video, every video it takes is like this.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 will need a firewire (IEEE1394) card ($25 to 30) for the computer and a firewire cable (less than 10) to be able to transfer vi! deo 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.http://www.usa.canon.com/cusa/consumer/products/ca......Show more