First HD can mean two things in a camcorder, so let's clarify that first. There are camcorders that record video on internal hard drives that get called "HD". There are also camcorders that record high definition video that get called "HD."
I'm feeling like if I take a jump to a HD camcorder I'm not really gaining anything in quality, but I'm saving a step of converting my tape to HD using software. Am I not getting the concept of HD? Is there something I'm missing, here about HD camcorders?
Recording on a hard drive has nothing directly to do with picture quality. It does mean that the camcorder will record in MPEG2 or MPEG4. That means that it takes up less space than DV (what you get on a mini-DV) camcorder and is harder to edit. It can also be much easier to make a DVD from.
A high definition camcorder should definitely be higher quality. Once you have started watching high definition video on a reasonably good sized TV (42"+), you'll find standard definition TV much less appealing. I have found that watching standard definition home video on a large screen just looks terrible.
The problem with high definition video is that it makes everything harder and more expensive. The cameras cost much more ($1,000 for an entry level video camera). The demands on your video editing computer are much higher. It takes more storage space. Finally, output devices cost more.
If you shoot in high definition and you want to distribute your video, you have several sub-optimal options. You can burn it to an HD-DVD or a BlueRay disk. Both require expensive new hardware. Neither are in widespread use, so the person you are producing the video for is not likely to be able to watch it.
Another option is to just render a high definition .MOV or .WMV and distribute it on a DVD or over the Internet. That requires that the recipient have a computer for playback. Surprsingly, many people still don't have computers attached to any large display devices, so they'd have to watch the video on a computer monitor.
Another option would be to shoot in HD, but to render in enhanced definition (480p), which is the standard for DVDs. You still have the high definition master for when a high definition distribution format gains wide acceptance, but people can start watching the video now.
A few definitions that might help this discussion:
Standard Definition - This is what old TV's used to display. It's a picture that is 1.33 times wider than it is tall. The picture has 480 lines, but it is interlaced, which means that only 240 lines are drawn for each frame.
Enhanced Definition - This is the native format for DVDs. The picture is still 480 lines, but it is progressive, which means that all 480 lines are drawn each time. Enhanced definition generally implies that the picture will be wide screen, which is 1.85 times wider than it is tall.
High Definition - This means several possible things. It is a picture that is 1.85 times wider than it is tall. It can be 720 lines progressive, 1080 lines interlaced, or even 1080 lines progressive. Most consumer HD camcorders shoot 1080 lines interlaced, but a few shoot 720 lines progressive.
MPEG2 is a standard for compressing video. It is the format used by DVDs. MPEG4 is a newer standard that allows for better compression. MPEG4 is the standard used in most satellite and cable HD signals.
Editing MPEG2 and MPEG4 are harder than DV because it compresses each frame (single image in a video stream) in a group of about 15 frames. So decoding any one frame requires that you have information from one or more other frames.
The most common standard for consumer HD recording is HDV. This is recorded on mini-DV tapes. It uses MPEG2 compression. Most pro-sumer video editing packages can handle HDV. I'm not sure about the sub-$100 packages.
A newer standard for recording HD is AVCHD. It uses MPEG4. Because the compression is better than MPEG4, you can record more data in a smaller space or better quality data in the same space. Because it is new, it is not well supported by video editing tools, with even some of the high end packages not supporting it. It is also used only by the very lowest end of the video cameras.
Shooting HD is hard. The higher resolution means that focus accuracy must be very good. Also, HD video tends to be noisier than standard def video because the pixel density on the sensors is higher.
Camcorderinfo.com is a reasonably good site to read about video cameras.
I can't stress enough that if you can afford it, getting a high def video camera is the way to go. The picture quality is much, much better.
