Here is a suggestion. Instead of a camcorder and look instead at the newer HD digital photo cameras.
A great choice is a Single Lens Reflex (SLR) camera which cost anywhere between $250 and several thousand dollars.
The beauty of these newer cameras is not only can they be used for a point and shoot still camera but can be set from fully automatic to fully manual and shoot amazing video. You get the best of both worlds.
Transferring your work to a computer is as easy as connecting the camera to an USB port and simply drag and drop, copy or moving using any file manager after which you can work on the video.
Do some Net searching on these cameras.
I bought a Fujifilm HS20EXR which is a 16 megapixel still camera and can shoot up to 1920X1080 Full HD video. One can even take a still photo during recording. The one thing I love about this camera is it can take a 360 degree panoramic photo with one click. It comes with a 58mm wide angle zoom lens which allows one to add filters. I have a polaroid filter on it all the time.
Ranting on a bit here but I do recommend buying one of these multi task SLR cameras. They do everything a camcorder and a still camera does all in one unit.
That doesn't need software to download the pictures from the device, and preferably has no built-in HDD (but it doesn't matter), but has great image-stabilization (I have shaky hands.) And At least 10x Optical Zoom, and must accept up to 32GB SDHC or equiv. Should have good still pictures, and must perform well in both low-light and high-light situations, yet not be too big in size or price. And at least 720p.

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