Hi guys,

I'm looking for a decent camcorder for making short films, as well as home videos. I'm based in Melbourne, Australia. I'm not a professional film maker so I'm looking for something suitable for a new starter, but with reliable quality and feature-set. Just wondering if anyone has any suggestions based on the following basic specifications:

1. Atleast 10x optical zoom

2. 3CCD for optimum broadcast quality

3. External mic (audio input)

4. Since I plan to edit the short films on my computer, I guess DV or DVD storage is more suitable, rather than a hard-disk (less reliable I suppose)

5. I mainly plan to distribute the short film(s) online (streaming videos), and once in a while on DVD's; so I guess 24fps (PAL) and web quality are important as well

6. My budget is under US $1000

Please share your suggestions.

Thanks in advance! Cheers

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1. Atleast 10x optical zoom
No problem...they all have that

2. 3CCD for optimum broadcast quality
I think restricting yourself to 3 CCD models is unnecessary. In your pricerange you will have a choice of models with 3 small CCDs, or one large CCD or CMOS. The single large sensor will often give as good or better performance.

3. External mic (audio input)
I agree this is good to have; unfortunatly it is hard to find so limits the options.

4. Since I plan to edit the short films on my computer, I guess DV or DVD storage is more suitable, rather than a hard-disk (less reliable I suppose)
I would use DV or HDV... though you could use hard disk, there aren't really any reliability issues. But you'll get best quality for the money with tape, and formats which are easiest to edit.

5. I mainly plan to distribute the short film(s) online (streaming videos), and once in a while on DVD's; so I guess 24fps (PAL) and web quality are important as well

24fps isn't PAL... if you get a PAL/50i model I'd use 25p.

6. My budget is under US $1000

I'm not sure about prices down under, but the Canon HV20 costs under $1000 in the US, and ticks all the boxes except it is a single CMOS. Has a 25p progressive mode, has mic input. Is HDV, uses miniDV tapes. Arguably the best you can get in this pricerange.