Just about to get a new camcorder and am concerned about the resolution. Film clips I have seen from other people tend to be small and pixelated due to low resolution, that said this may be because they converted the raw DV image into MPEG1. If I archive the footage into MPEG2 DVD or MPEG4 Xvid is the resolution really sufficient on the 800k pixel ccds? What difference do the 3 ccd cameras make in terms of image quality, is the resolution higher? Other than image quality these are my personal requirements:

1. Image Quality / Resolution
2. Good Lens
3. Image stabilisation
4. Good optical zoom
5. Easy to use + remote control
6. DV in/out
7. Relatively compact
8. Good low light (perhaps infra red capability)
9. Good sound i.e. reduced motor recording pickup

I'm not worried about stills as I have a good Canon G3 for that. My budget is up to £500 but obviously less would be best The Sony and Panasonic range look like a good bet and I would also consider the Canon's but for the obvious mentioned problems!

[MarkE19]

Forget about resolution as it is totally irelevent! All PAL DV camcorders record at the standard PAL resolution of 576 lines.
Higer resolution CCD's are put into a camcorder to give better quality still images to removeable memory cards, and have very little to do with the quality of video onto tape.
3 CCD camcorders will give better colour reproduction to the picture as a separate sensor is used for each of the 3 prime colours. This does have the down side of being slightly poorer in lower lighting conditions as the light gets split 3 ways.

Image stabalisation is a good feature, but make sure it is optical and not digital as digital stabalisation will reduce resolution and PQ.
Smaller cams will tend to have a smaller lens and therefore not be as good in low light. The Panasonics tend to use a bigger CCD that will help with low light recording.

Mark.

Thanks Mark, so I'll forget about the resolution if they all offer full standard definition PAL. I keep reading that the image on 3 ccds is much better but I would like a good low light, the Sony HC19 offers 0 lux with infra red which sounds great.

From my days working for Canon I remember them being way ahead of the rest with their optical image stabiliser used in their binoculars. Which other manufacturers uses a good optical image stabiliser?

[MarkE19]

Personally I would never use an IR night mode as the quality tends to be very poor and it will record everything in shades of green and no other colours. There are other types of night modes, but I've never seen one that offers what I would consider to be acceptable quality.

I've only ever owned Sony camcorders so can't compare different makes, but sony do have what I consider to be a very good optical image stabiliser on some models.
My cam is about 5 years old and IMO still very difficault to beat without spending a lot of money, therefore I don't know all the models that are available, and what features they offer. I would need to look around the internet to find out what models do what, so I'm going to leave that to you . IMO Sony have always made some of the best camcorders going, but as I have also said before, Panasonic are now getting rave reviews for their camcorders on this and other forums. Have a good look around and actually get to hold a few cams before you decide which to buy. Jessops are very good for this as they will pricematch a UK web site and also offer a 30 day money back guarentee, so if a cam doesn't perform as you want you can swap it for another - as long as they stock it!

Mark.