short film camcoder for video editing

[Smilevil]

I everyone, i'm new here on this forums (obvious), i just have a few question

I wanna buy a video camera, but i don't have much money, i can spend like 1,200 dollars on a camcoder, i wanna know what's the best camera at this price. i'm planning to do a short film and i was thinking on HDR-SR12 because it has 1920x1080 but i read on this forum that resolution ins't more important that Bitrate, other thing is what about progressive scan or interlaced scan, what's best in this case, and about minidv or HDD, i read that minidv is better for editing because on HDD is video compressed on mpg and if you uncompressed it will take more space of your disk than a minidv. I heard that mpg is more difficult to edit than AVI uncompressed. What do you think i need to buy?

[JohnnyMalaria]

I think the first question is whether or not you are looking for high definition (HD) or standard definition (SD). Also, are you looking at TV distribution, internet, computer etc?

For SD, miniDV is the best choice. It is the most common and is supported by a lot of mature software.

For HD, the most widely used by pros and semi-pros is HDV. HDV camcorders have the advantage of being able to record regular DV, too.

Both DV and HDV use cheap, reliable tapes.

HDD-based, DVD-based camcorders usually record in a highly compressed format and the software support is less.

All the HD formats used a compressed format that does indeed make it harder to edit than an SD format like DV - unless you are prepared to pay many $1000s. Nevertheless, modern PCs and editing software handle this very well.

For your price range, you may want to consider looking for used equipment on eBay. I got a Sony HDR-HC1 recently for $1000. Your budget will need to include extra batteries, perhaps a separate charger and maybe a lens converter or two.