Recently I answered a question on LinkedIn about what kind of camcorder to use to shoot videos for a blog. Thought you might appreciate the answer as well.
By the way, the Answers feature on LinkedIn is a great way to 1) demonstrate your expertise and 2) boost your visibility!
Back to my answer.
When I got clarity from the person asking, it turns out they planning to shoot fitness training videos.
I recommend the Flip and/or a simple webcam. But then it depends. What is the purpose of the videos and what do you want to achieve with the videos?
The internal software on the Flip provides simple editing which is often enough. You can also create movies from multiple video clips and you can upload directly to YouTube (and now Facebook with recent software upgrade). You can also create channels and send videos to specific people. I use this to do video coaching and send video messages to clients.I hear the Zi8 from Kodak is great though I haven't used it yet. One of the benefits over the Flip is that you can add an external mic.
For simple talking head and interviews, The Flip will do the trick.
Get the HD Flip and then you'll get high def quality pictures. I use a lot of videos on my blog and use the HD Flip. You can see a post here that also explains how I do video podcasts and distribute video on the web to drive more traffic.You can see all the various Flip cameras here.
You can learn more about The Flip and the software on their site.
I really like the share feature for sending private video emails to clients. It's simple: Click on video, click on Share, type in email address and your message, click send.
