Thanks Steve. I dont know to much about all of the High Def settings that can be used now, I just want a good quality video that I can edit in Studio. Any suggestions? I would hate to spend 4 or 5 hundred dollars and then find out I cant edit the video. Thanks.

If your local dealer is friendly, take a memory card in with you and ask if you can record a minute or two on a few different models. That way you can take the files home with you and try opening them.

A couple of questions then:

1) Is hi-def video editing important to you, or would you be happy with standard def video?
2) Would you consider a tape-based camcorder, or do you prefer a hard drive camcorder?
3) AVCHD is the current consumer standard for hi-def, non-tape based video. The challenge with it is that it requires a lot of power to edit. A quad core or i7 processor is usually recommended for editing it, so don't even consider it if your computer isn't up to snuff.
4) How much is in your budget for your camcorder? How much would you like spend?

1: Hi-Def is really not that important its just all the reviews I find on the internet is for Hi-Def.
2: I have a tape-based, the problem is every time I take it to the beach to video home vacation, the humidity or something causes it to malfunction after awhile. Once I get back home it begins to work fine. This has happened every time over the last several years. As far as I can tell everything I read says that the flash memory is better than hard drive, but thats the problem,I just have to trust what I read because I know nothing about it.
3: I have a Dell Studio XPS 7100, AMD Phenom(tm) II X6 1055T Processor 2.80 GHz
4: Around $400-$550
Thanks again for your help.

A lot of folks recommend a new, fast processor for editing AVCHD. While this is nice, it's not absolutely necessary. It's good to have smooth, full frame rate previews and fast rendering times, but you can edit without these niceties. My main rig is a dual 3GHz Q6600 which is pretty ancient by today's standards. AVCHD on the timeline in half/preview mode previews at about 15 to 20fps. This is good enough to find the spots where i want to cut and drag clips around. For any detailed work i'll do a RAM prerender of short sections to see them full frame rate. I let renders run overnight so i don't really care how long they take.

My system is also based on a Q6600, which is quad core 2.4GHz. It performs well so one overclocked at 3GHz should be quite a high performer, I would think.

I edit 1920x1080 60i AVCHD on a Core 2 Duo (yes, just 2 cores) 2.66 GHz. While I would like to upgrade, it definitely does the job as per Chienworks' description.

When burning HD video, do you burn to a regular DVD, Double Layer, or Blue Ray Disc? The more I search, the more I am leaning towards a good Standard Def camcorder,especially if you have to use Double Layer or Blue Ray disc.

You can burn HD material to a standard DVD. You get maybe 20 minutes or so and playback compatibility isn't guaranteed.

However, even if you finish your videos in SD you can still shoot in HD. Lots of folks consider the result to be a lot better than shooting in SD to begin with. Also, later down the road when you do have better computer equipment you'll be able to re-render all the videos you shoot now in HD.

What i'm doing now is keeping all the HD versions on hard drive to watch on my computer if i wish, and giving other folks copies in SD on DVD because most of my family and clients can't watch anything else.

Thanks Chienworks. I think I will try to find a SD camcorder that will give me a good quality video for right now. Not knowing that much about different formats and such, I know it would be my luck to purchase something that I could not figure out how to edit and burn. As they say, its hard to teach an old dog new tricks, and I keep having troubles with the standard format. If 3D ever takes over Im done. So, can anyone suggest a good SD camcorder? Thanks.

"Having to get a new camcorder and I am not sure about all the new formats these days. I was looking at the Panasonic HDC-TM90K and Canon Vixia HF-M40. I was reading the reviews on the Panasonic and it said the format it captured in was 1080/60p and that some editing programs would not work. Does anyone have any experience with either one of these camcorders whether or not I can use Vegas Movie Studio 10 Platinum to edit. Thanks. "

I have Panasonic TM90 and Vegas MS Platinum 10 works flawlessly with 1080/60p (my desktop computer is 2-year old with the cheapest Core2Duo). This is the latest AVCHD 2,0 format, so it will be supported everywhere just like AVCHD currently is. Sony is already supporting it across all their blu-ray players (either new ones, or old ones with a firmware update). Besides being able to watch your edited footage on blu-ray, you can use multiAVCHD program to create AVCHD folder (specifically for Panasonic TM series) from your VMS-edited files, transfer the folder to TM90, and watch in 1080/60p directly from the camcorder connected to a TV via HDMI cable. This is especially convenient when you want to show your movies when visiting friends - just bring with you your TM90 and HDMI cable.

Canon is way behind the competition, none of their newest camcorders have 60p.

I am about to give up hope of finding a standard def camcorder that takes good quality video. Is their anyone using one that you would recommend?

Sony miniDVs produce about the best quality standard def video available for under $1000. And you can find them used on eBay for as little as $100.

I would stay away from non-tape based standard def formats, like DVD camcorders and hard drive standard def cams. They don't interface nearly as smoothly with PC-based video editors as miniDV does.