Help me, flist, you're my only hope!

[mcmuffins_js]

So, I'm thinking about camcorders.  Yes, camcorders.  (Did you know they are still called that?  I feel as if someone is going to pop out and say "Hey, mcmuffins, 1988 called, and they want their terminology back," whenever I say that.  Of course, the fact that I'm not in sitcom means that this probably won't happen, but a girl can dream.)

Anyway!  Camcorder!  Here is what I'm thinking about, and why I need your help, only, in reverse order to that.  I need your help because I have no idea what to look for in such a machine, and no idea which machine will give me what I need.

Here are my needs as a potential camcorder purchaser:
I am a folklorist, so I do fieldwork which involves filmed interviews.  Use - and potential use - for this footage varies, and includes, but is not limited to:

• Video clips to stream on web sites such as YouTube or the Literacy Council of Northern Virginia (wait, what?  Yes.  I'm working on a project for them.) 
  
• Watching and transcribing them (in the same way I do audio) to interpret and write about what I find.
• Possible use in a larger/longer format, such as a short documentary film.  I would like the quality to be such that it's reasonably clear on at least a 27" screen, so that more than one person can watch it at a time.
• Something that can be transferred to archival software, for use in, well, archives, so that future researchers would have access to my fieldwork collections (I'm the graduate assistant for the archives at school - of course I want this!)

So, you know, any advice is SO WELCOME and very much appreciated!

Oh, and another probable use: my kitty being cute.  Not an intended use, per se, but a highly likely one!