The best cameras for shooting video (roundup)

There are a lot of good reasons to choose a camera over a consumer camcorder for shooting video, including larger sensors, which tend to deliver better tonal range and enhanced depth-of-field flexibility, and better photo quality. And an interchangeable-lens camera (ILC) -- a dSLR, fixed mirror (Sony's SLT series), or mirrorless model -- imparts huge creative and logistical benefits over a typical point-and-shoot design.
Most consumer camcorders have pretty ugly polygonal bokeh until you hit the $1,000 or so price point. With an ILC, even the cheap lenses deliver better handling of out-of-focus areas.

 

So why do camcorders still exist? For one thing, they're physically optimized to be held for longer periods of time without inducing fatigue. Holding a camera with the LCD at eye level or the bulky body with an LCD tilted or flipped out can be awkward. Cameras also tend to be a mixed bag on the autofocus (AF) front. Mirrorless designs -- point-and-shoots and ILCs -- tend to have an advantage because they're built around contrast-based AF systems that are more suited to continual operation than the phase-detection AF systems integral to dSLRs. (Here's a discussion of the two technologies.) The videographers who first used dSLRs accepted the need to manually focus -- and to retrofit their cameras with the lens add-ons necessary for smooth, comfortable focus operation (a follow focus) and LCD magnifiers called loupes for precise operation on the relatively small, low-resolution displays. But not everyone wants to surround their nicely sized camera with an unwieldy Erector Set-like rig. So if you just want the video equivalent of a point-and-shoot, my recommendation is you stick with a mirrorless ILC.

Some key features to consider while deciding on a model include manual controls -- the ability to adjust shutter speed, aperture, and gain (ISO sensitivity) -- support for an external microphone or headphones, and a tilting or articulated LCD. While many cameras have manual controls, watch out for the caveats. For example, the Sony Alpha SLT-A77V has nice autofocus, but you can use it only in automatic mode. Also, some cameras only let you adjust aperture, not shutter speed; if you can't control the shutter speed, you can frequently end up with a jittery, unpleasant look to video shot in bright light. While focus peaking, which uses edge highlighting to show the scene moving in and out of focus, is a huge advantage for manual focus, at this point only a few cameras seem to have incorporated it.
Also, keep in mind that you don't necessarily need an ILC to get decent video, manual controls or expandability. Sony's Cyber-shot DSC-HX30V and HX200V both deliver good video if you like your settings automatic. And the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ200 stands out on a few fronts: it not only supports manual exposure controls during video, but it also has a mic jack, a hot shoe (for a bank of LED lights), and its fixed f2.8 aperture across the entire zoom range gives you a lot more flexibility in low light than the typical snapshot camera.
There are quite a few cameras that I haven't yet tested that have potential to be good video options, including the Sony NEX-5R and NEX-6, Canon EOS 6D and EOS M, Sony Alpha SLT-A99, and the Panasonic Lumix DMC-GH3.