In reply to:
Digital camcorders seem to have pretty high zoom rates - does that help my task at all? I suspect the resolution would not be adequate, and there is still a part of me that wants the room for interpretation afforded by a still shot rather than the often ugly reality of a movie.
Camcorder zoom numbers are very VERY often misleading. Usually they'll be marketed as "WOW! 40x ZOOM!" then in one micron high type "4x optical, 40x digital"... so the actual lens will "go out" 4 times... then after that, it starts interpolating smaller and smaller areas of the CCD as a "full image" (imagine blowing up your avatar to full your screen - welcome to their "40x". Since a broadcast camera's 50x lens is usually a 120lb box bigger than my torso, that should give you an idea how much BS is involved.
As for resolution, you'll get 0.3megapixels out of a digital camcorder (640x480). Good enough for a 2" x 1.5" print. Bliss.
Bren R.
