Every internaut have heard about youtube or it uses it on (almost) daily basis. Many time it's more than a tool to find something interesting (about an increasing number of subject and stories), it's a service that brings you music, funny thing and, sometimes, joy. As it became one of the most traff icked sites on the internet and the second most important search engine, it became an extremely useful tool to promote something (services and products, ideas and movies) or to became famous for whatever you do (good or bad). So the quality of your videos should be important in order to became viewed by many.
In order to shoot good videos you'll need (preferably) a good story, a reliable digital video camera, a tripod, a lighting kit and a high-quality microphone. The usage of the tripod depends of the size of the camera and the story: you will need it (along with the lightning kit) when you record static videos, such conferences, interviews or concerts, but it will be useless when you have to follow somebody on the road, in traffic... when you are, generally, on the move. In such situations the portability of the camers is essential.
As every time you choose a device to buy there are a few questions you should ask yourself: what is the purpose of the device and how am I goinf to use it? How much money I am prepared to spend on it? (at least as a price range) What is the quality of the output? Is it easy to use? What's the best brand on the market?
When are just recording "stuff of life", as you, your family, friends or mates in the room, people on the street or during an event, you don't really need an expensive state of the art camcorder. Lately, as the technology evolved, all the new video camers record in HD... you can just take the video and upload it on Youtube. These sort of camcorders have their own software built into the memory chip inside them, you don't need to install addtional software on your computer. You can record (as a lot of other people) all of these thing using the smartphones or/and tablets... especially when these mobile devices come with applications that allow you to easy upload the videos on Youtube. The speed will depend of you internet connection, and later you can improve (not much, but it is possible) your videos using the tools offered by Youtube.
Things change when you want really good quality or, eventually, you want to edit or to process the video after recording and before uploading it on the internet. When your intended audience are professionals the things are rather different the just filming stuff around. You need some bussiness application in order to edit your videos, you should consider some money for this long time investment (at least for the next 1-2 years) other than your camcorder - but this is another subject.
When using a video camera you need to think about the availability of light in the setting you will be filming in because theootage can easily become grainy if you have little light (a common problem among the modern digital camcorders). If you have a low light setting you will need to look at a higher-quality digital camera, though you can use cheaper versions if you have a lighting kit.
The second aspect of the application is if you are going to be stationary or moving. Some digital camera offer image stabilization that counteracts small movements made by your hand as you hold the camera but that have some limitation. On the other hand, if you plan on filming you skydiving or riding a motorcycle it doesn't make sense to go for an expensive camera that could be more easily damaged.
Do not rely too heavily on a camcorder’s built-in microphone. Although convenient, most built-in mics become useless if the subject of the video is more than 10 meters away from the camera. Also, these mikes pickup a lot of noise from the environment and the result is a sloppy and poor-quality end product. You should consider an additional high-quality microphone.