1. All the HD camcorders' video looks great. Every one of the latest HD camcorders we've seen—seven in all—delivers kick-ass video, almost as good as what you see coming down a lot of cable or satellite systems from the networks. But it doesn't look as clean and sharp as Blu-ray or HD DVD.

2. Know what do you want to do with the camcorder. Maybe HD is overkill. If you want to upload videos to YouTube, the easiest way to do it is using the video capabilities of a point-n-shoot still camera.

3. The HD camcorders are easiest to use if you plug them directly into an HDTV via HDMI. Almost all the camcorders have HDMI output, so it's easy to just connect that camcorder to your HDTV and use the supplied remote. In fact, it feels like this is what the camcorder companies would prefer you to do, because the editing software included with every one of the camcorders is almost unusable, which brings us to number 4:

4. Editing AVCHD footage is awkward. Many of the latest camcorders use the highly compressed AVCHD format, a variant of the H.264 used in Blu-ray and HD DVDs. Cutting HDV footage of older camcorders is easy, because it's a mature HDTV video format that's been around for three or four years. AVCHD is quite different, newer and more cumbersome. While many editing software packages now support AVCHD, it's still a rather clumsy process to move the footage from camcorder to PC, albeit a little easier when you're dealing with a Mac.

5. If you plan to edit HD footage, especially AVCHD, get yourself a mofo PC or Mac. Make that a dual-processor machine with eight cores if you can swing it. You'd better have the most powerful PC you can find, because the huge files and compression chores you'll be asking your computer to deal with are daunting, and require spectacular amounts of power unless you want to endure long waits for rendering.

6. Where will you distribute the video from your HD camcorder? (in other words, how will Grandma watch your masterpieces?) With HD, gone are the days of ubiquitous playback devices for your videos. After you're done editing, it won't be as easy as laying it down on a VHS tape or DVD that even Grandma can play in her living room. HD footage goes well on a Blu-ray disc, but who has those burners or players yet?

7. Decide if you want a camcorder that records on hard disk, flash memory card, DVD, HDV tape or Blu-ray. A hard disk stores more footage but is bulkier and more fragile than flash memory. But a 4GB flash card only stores 40 minutes' worth of footage. Recording on DVD and Blu-ray both involve spinning removable media which seems anachronistic, but then your footage can be played back immediately on many Blu-ray disc players. Then there's DV tape recording HDV footage, which gets good results, but it seems so, uh, analog.

8. Prices are reasonable. The best HD camcorder I've seen, the Panasonic HDC-SD1, costs around $800. You'd be surprised how prices are plummeting with HDTV camcorders. Since it's not brand-spanking new, you might be able to find an even better deal on that Panny SD1 on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving.

9. Most camcorders end up gathering dust on a closet shelf. Be realistic. Are you really going to be shooting lots of video? Accurately assess whether you'll actually be using a camcorder frequently, or just occasionally. Also think about whether anyone will be eager to watch your HD videos that you may not have the time or patience to edit. If you have a special event coming up, consider borrowing or renting a camcorder rather than blowing all your spare cash on a trinket that will be used once or twice and end up as shelfware.

10. Catch up on some reviews of the latest HD camcorders to get a lay of the land. Camcorder Info picked as its camcorder of the year the Canon HV20, an HD model that uses old-timey DV tapes and records in the HDV format. We found the camcorder's video spectacular, with very few motion artifacts. It's also nice to be able to output in good ol' DV whenever you want with no further rendering.

After using seven of these camcorders, and five of them for about a month in an extended review situation, our fave was the Panasonic HDC-SD1 (pictured above), with its near-perfect video, flash memory recording, tiny size, smooth stabilization and $800ish price. For a look at that, also check out Wired's roundup of camcorders in its annual Test issue, and coming soon online and now on newsstands, my own roundup of five HD camcorders in Maximum PC magazine.

While this HG10 shares a lot of specs with the Canon HR10, its DVD-recording HD camcorder brother, this new shooter feels extremely compact in the hand, and while it is indeed the world's smallest hard disk HD camcorder, it's not too small, still giving you easy access to its controls. We especially like the scroll wheel on the widescreen viewfinder instead of that touchscreen on models from Panasonic and others, which in the real world tend to end up such a smudged-up mess it's hard to even see your video underneath all those fingerprints.

A slight disappointment is the life of the standard battery included with the camcorder, which Canon says will give you an hour of shooting, and that's without the LCD viewscreen on. If you want longer battery life, you'll have to spring for the extended battery, which lasts a quoted 2 hours and 15 minutes.

We especially like the way Canon applies its AVCHD codec, different from the way this compression is being used by Sony and Panasonic. Canon's compression scheme is able to lightly compress some scenes, while more heavily compressing others. For example, a simple clear blue sky can stand a lot more compression than a complicated crowd scene or a bunch of flowers.

How does the resulting footage look? Canon was unable to show us any video coming out of this camcorder at our preview session in New York, but we did see some of the HR10's 12Mbps footage which looked excellent with very few compression artifacts. The good news is that this HG10 compresses its footage even less, at a rate of 15Mbps, so it'll probably look even better. Even at that 12Mbps compression rate we saw, it looked every bit as good as HDV footage, which compresses at 25Mbps. It was some crispy-clean HD video, remarkably sharp with excellent color saturation and accuracy. Big thumbs-up.

This HG10 is recording in 1080i HD, at 1440x1080 at all compression settings. As is the case with most 1080i camcorders, only 1440 pixels per scanline are written to disk to save space, anamorphically squeezed from this HG10's 1920x1080 sensors to 1440x1080 on disk, and then stretched back out for the full 1920x1080i when it's played back.

Canon also uses "super range optical image stabilization," which uses a gyro sensor that detects motion, and sends a signal to a processor that tells a lens-shifting element to move. Then a processor analyzes the image, and if it determines the framing could be even more stable, it sends a signal back to the lens to tweak it further. It's an optical system, but it has a unique ability to feed back even more information in a second pass of stabilization. The result is good stabilization of high-frequency shaking as other systems can do, but also stabilization of subtle hand movements.

Overall, this looks like a great new camcorder from Canon. Its AVCHD format is finally becoming more widely accepted, too, with Apple's Final Cut Pro editing software now compatible with the format, along with the excellent Windows video editing application Sony Vegas Pro 7e. Unfortunately, Adobe hasn't jumped on the AVCHD bandwagon yet, but Adobe officials told us they were feverishly working on it. Adobe is planning to include AVCHD support with future updates of Premiere Pro CS3, which we hope will trickle down to Premiere Elements. But you can still edit this camcorder's footage without buying any more software, at least on the PC—Canon said a version of the Windows-only Corel (formerly Ulead) VideoStudio 11 will be included with this HG10 camcorder.

Canon says the HG10 will be priced at $1299, and will ship in early October in the United States.

UPDATE: The Sony SR5 is now the smallest hard drive-based camcorder.

Do you want to know how?

I'm not going to try to translate every little nuance of the showdown. All you really need to know going in, if you don't already, is that the Sony and the Canon record to tape, and use HDV MPEG-2 compression. The Panasonic relies strictly on AVCHD, an MPEG-4 based option, and stores video only on SD cards. The Everio records to at 60GB hard drive with both AVCHD and "a new flavor of MPEG-2".

[The Canon HV20] shares an advantage over the Panasonic HDC-SD1 and JVC GZ-HD7 because it uses tried and true HDV MPEG-2 compression, and our tests show that HDV remains the best consumer HD format. Both the Canon and Sony HDR-HC7—the other HDV camcorder in this shootout—scored higher than the others in our video performance tests. In the lab, the Canon and Sony raced to a virtual dead heat, both displaying sharper images with less noise than the Panasonic and JVC.

The crispness of the HV20's image was most notable in close-up shots of our model, where we could literally count every hair on our model's face. [Remember him?] The Sony was visibly less crisp (though still quite sharp), followed by the Panasonic. The JVC GZ-HD7 trailed the pack, with the lowest tested video resolution, and the softest images of the field. The Canon also turned in a stellar low light score, thanks to a 24p mode that more than doubles the light gathering ability of its imager. In low light, it beat out the others in the same order as above. The 24p capability in and of itself is a great extra feature on the HV20, yet another reason to consider it.

The bottom line went something like this:

The Sony HDR-HC7 was most feature-packed but absence of a focus assist feature was a liability. Cam Control multifunction dial was not as easy to use as its predecessors Cam Control rings.

The Panasonic HDC-SD1 is too specialized, though it is good for close quarters shooting, situations that demand silent operation, or a rock-solid optical image stabilizer. There's no headphone jack and no accessory shoe. It also records AVCHD video which does not yet pose a threat to HDV.

The JVC GZ-HD7 had great handling with nice prosumer traits like a focus ring and dedicated buttons for image control. lack of a headphone jack or any means of monitoring and adjusting audio levels. The biggest disappointment with the HD7, however, was video performance: again, it doesn't stand up to the quality of HDV video.

The Canon HV20 had cheap-feeling construction and an awful zoom lever, but delivered best bang for the buck.

From the sound of it, the boys are still looking for that perfect camcorder:

We'd love to see a camcorder that really brings it all together: the handling of the HD7, the functionality of the HC7, the OIS and compactness of the SD1, and the performance of the HV20. Until that happens, smart buyers would be advised to consider the strengths and weaknesses of all of these camcorders, and choose the one that is the best overall match for their shooting style and goals.

The Great HD Shoot-Out - Canon HV20, Sony HDR-HC7, Panasonic HDC-SD1, JVC GZ-HD7 [Camcorderinfo.com]

Most importantly, its 60GB hard drive on board does away with that pesky videotape, a remnant of the dark ages that we won't miss one bit. It has a pretty good lens on it, too, f/1.8 - 1.9 Fujinon glass that JVC uses in its broadcast line of HD cameras. With its HDMI, DV and USB outputs, it's looking like a near-perfect consumer HD camcorder (on paper) for around $1799. Available next month, we'll get our hands on one, showing and telling you all about it. – Charlie White

JVC HD Everio GZ-HD7 Full High-Definition 3-CCD Camcorder [New Launches]