best quality available, I would suggest miniDV tape. There are a few camcorders in your price range. Take a look at the ratings area at camcorderinfo.com - Canon HV10 and HV20; Sony HDR-HC5 and HC7.
You may need to add a Firewire port to a traditional Windows machine.
If you do go the hard drive (HDD) standard definition route, the captured video will transfer via USB - Both Windows and Macintosh machines have USB ports - the Macs will need StreamClip installed to properly use the video files.
If you go with a HDD hidef camcorder, you will need to decode AVCHD compressed files. The different Windows applications editors may not get along with ALL the camcorders on the AVCHD decoding, so be careful selecting - as for Macs, at the moment is it the iMovie included with the latest iLife ONLY (no iMovie6 - which is a shame) and FinalCut Pro (not Express, yet).
Hi to all, I'm looking for my first camcorder. I'll be using mainly for video art projects (indoor and outoor) and family trip videos.
I'm looking to spend between $700-$1100. Thinking about media type: miniDV (or HDV ?) or Hard Disc. I'll be using PC and Apple for video Editing. I'm not looking for something fancy, I just need to have good image/sound quality and that I can easily transfer to computer.
I was reading posts about getting first camcorder but could'nt find that anyone want camcorder for more advanced use, it's mostly for home use. Can I find something in this price range?
I'm sure that some video guru have an answer 
Thanks!
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