First, look at what the professionals use… You will not find any internal hard drive based, consumer AVCHD compression, small imaging chips and small lenses. A few of the new Panasonics, maybe, but their lenses and imaging chips are huge – and NONE of the pros I know will touch them. The file types they save to are, for the most part, DV and HDV. There is some XDCAM/HDCAM and DVPRO. ALL or these save to either digital tape or very specific external hard drives from Focus Enhancements or very specific flash memory (like the P2 cards Panasonic uses.

Hard disc drive camcorders have known problems recording video in high noise/high vibration environments. This could be a band (amplified or not), loud engines, loud crowds… video will not be recorded because the hard drive heads will park so they do not bump into the hard drive platter because of the vibration. Hard disc drive camcorders also have known problems with high altitude – anything over about 9,800 feet does not have enough air pressure to allow the hard drive heads to work properly. Again, video will not be recorded because the hard drive heads will park.

Since I cannot see into the future, I choose to eliminate problems by not getting products I know have potential for failure under common conditions. I no longer recommend hard drive based camcorders unles their use is very limited and has been specified (which you have not done).

Flash memory and miniDV tape based camcorders do not have these issues.

To answer your questions directly:
I have 1 standard definition camcorder and 2 high definition camcorders. All three use miniDV tape. If I were to buy anothe camcorder right now, today, it would be another miniDV tape high definition camcorder.

You do not need BluRay to watch video from the hard drive based camcorder. It is true that they record to AVCHD files (like flash memory high definition camcorders), but if you import that video to your computer and edit, the video editor can save the file or export the video to standard definition for playback in a regular DVD player or as a high definition file for computer playback or as a high definition file for uploading to vimeo or youtube or Yahoo video… or if you burn a data DVDas an AVCHD file, you can playback in a BluRay player or PS3.

Editing video can be difficult – or easy. This is a function of the video editor you use, not the type of video format your camcorder captures. Some video formats need to be converted, some don’t… once you go through it a couple of times, it is what it is… Getting the video into the computer for editing depends on the camcorder and the computer.

As for the expense between HD or standard def… it depends. The lens and imaging chip are the expensive parts of the camera… The Sony DCR-VX2100 is a great standard definition camera. So is the Panasonic DVX100… and they are both more expensive than a Canon HV30 or a Sony HDR-HC9…

HD is my choice.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2Fs%3Fie%3DUTF8%26rs%3D172421%26ref%255F%3Dsr%255Fnr%255Fn%255F2%26bbn%3D110770011%26qid%3D1231340088%26rnid%3D172421%26rh%3Dn%253A502394%252Cn%253A172421%252Cn%253A110770011&tag=ad107-20&linkCode=ur2&camp=1789&creative=390957