PAL Or NTSC camcorder?

[Lucid_Dream]

I'm doubting cos the PAL camcorder is double prize than the NTSC camcorder but i live in region where the PAL is basic system.
I've read all the articles about this subject and understood this:
- the pal camcorder gives better picture quality that the ntsc one
- if i "capture" the ntsc source on the hdd and convert it to pal will lose the picture quality

Is it right?

[hech54]

PAL on PAL is...in my opinion....better picture quality. NTSC on PAL looks pretty good. And of course we know that PAL on NTSC is damn near impossible AND it looks pretty crappy....again...in my opinion.
If you are in PAL-Land then consider yourself lucky....you(we) can play anything and it looks pretty damn good.
I'd stick with PAL.

[edDV]

I would recommend a PAL camcorder if you are in a PAL region and NTSC in an NTSC region. This is to allow easy playback to local TV sets and recording equipment.

With DV format the quality differences are minor. The same data rates are used for PAL and NTSC. PAL has 20% more vertical lines (720x576 vs. 720x480) but NTSC has 20% higher frame rate (29.97 vs 25). The same issues carry over into interlaced DVD.

For HDV and HD both record the same frame sizes (e.g. 960x1080, 1280x720, 1440x1080, 1920x1080) but NTSC records at higher frame rate.

[sorinicu]

As a separate note, I think that a PAL/SECAM/NTSC TV set is not a problem in Bulgaria (if is, buy one from Romania ).
That TV set will let you watch the NTSC tapes or DVD's in their native format without any conversion - maximum quality.