[W.A.C.]

I plan to start a review series and do other stuff with YouTube and need to get some kind of an HD recorder for consistent quality. The current best type of video recorder I own is a camera phone recorder and the quality is not good by any means. I imagine video quality like this would look really jarring with game footage this high quality. I was initially thinking about buying the Kodak PlaySport (Zx5) Video Camera along with these accessories. I also discovered the Swann Freestyle Video Camera today and it looks pretty decent as well. Biggest concern I have with both cameras are sound issues and a lack of focusing options. From what I gather, it seems both cameras only do auto-focusing which could be a problem. Not to mention both cameras seem to have sound issues and don't allow people to implement microphones. Here are some things I want out of video camera.

-Records in 1080p so it's consistent in resolution with my other video quality.
-Can be placed on my desk.
-I definitely need a small stand. A larger stand would be really nice too, but it's nowhere near as important for my purposes.
-Either having the sound quality be better than my Logitech Desktop Microphone or being able to install a mic to the camera would be very helpful. (Note: My Logitech mic was $20 two years ago.) I want the sound quality in my videos to be consistent so either of those options would be great. Alternatively, I could always have my mic record audio onto my computer and just sync it up with my recorded video. Not ideal, but a solution I'm willing to tolerate for most of my videos. However, I would need to be able to rely on my video camera's sound at some instances so if the audio is beyond poor quality, then that would be a major problem.
-Having more focusing options than just auto-focus would be incredibly nice. Not mandatory, but it's a desirable option.
-Has to be affordable. If I were to go with either the Kodak camera + accessories or Swann Freestyle camera, it'll definitely have serious consequences to my financial situation because I'm on a serious budget. At the same time, I absolutely need a better way to record video for what I want to accomplish so I need to be willing to spend more than I'd like to. Cameras like a GoPro are just way out of my limited budget.

Any suggestions and feedback will be highly appreciated.

[Caniad Bach]

Really the best way to do it for audio would be to get a decent separate mic and sync the visuals and audio together later. Chances are you won't get a terribly good sound out of a microphone built into a camera. I tend to use an audio/visual cue to make it much easier to sync up, for example in a game review, "and I am pressing the Start button in 3,2,1 now." USB mics are relatively cheap and are starting to be a viable alternative for these kind of projects.

Pretty much everything will record in 1080p these days, but having a good quality lens is important.

What kind of things will you be filming? Just static you talking to the camera or more film like moving about stuff?

[W.A.C.]

Mostly for static stuff, but being able to move it around at times would be necessary.