First you want to consider whether you even need a camcorder. Personally, I use a Canon SD450 digital camera with a 2 gigabyte memory card, and its movie function is great. The SD 450 and many other Canon cameras record in AVI (motion JPEG) format at 640x480 pixels and 30 frames per second. That yields quality equivalent to what you'd see on a DVD. I've burned some of my movies to DVD and played them on a DVD player, and they look just like you shot them with a camcorder. The 2 gigabyte card lets me record about 16 minutes worth of video.

Casio also makes digital cameras that record high resolution video, but their photographic quality pales in comparison to Canon.

If you do want a "real" video camera, don't spend more than you need to. Most people won't use the functions found on more expensive models. Nice things to look for are long battery life and image stabilization. If you think 200x zoom is cool, be forewarned that it's completely useless.