Camcorder for news website

[Scrimpy]

I occasionally shoot videos for our newspaper website, and we're looking to upgrade to an HD camcorder. From experience, I would like one that has the following features: good stabilization even when zooming in on a faraway subject, the ability to focus on audio coming from the subject so that ambient sounds are kept to a minimum, still pictures that are good enough to be used in print, and long battery life.

Could someone recommend a brand that does these things? Any other thoughts would also be appreciated.

 

[zblaxberg]

What's your budget?

As far as sound goes you'll need a shotgun microphone because no internal microphone will be able to do that kind of quality audio you're looking for. Do you wish to shoot to tape or to SD cards?

 

[Scrimpy]

I'm hoping to get away with $500. An SD card should be fine since the videos are usually quite short. I've heard of camcorders that "focus" on the audio coming from whatever the camera is focused on visually. Unfortunately, I can't remember the brand — might have been Panasonic.