bjw answers:

There is no such camcorder – new.

Canon HV40 is single CMOS and as consumer grade, does not habve the manual controls on the outside.

Sony HVR-HD1000 is single CMOS – and essentially a consumer grade (lens, imaging chip, mic connection) in a shoulder-mount format.

The closest I can get you is the Sony HDR-FX7.

bjw answers:

The 3ccd represents the number of chips and how it intakes image information. There are single chip and 3 chip HD camcorders available.

Panasonic, Sony and JVC all have 3ccd HD camcorders. The Panasonic HSC1U is good for the price.

bjw answers:

All else being equal, 3CCD will be better in low light, but in daylight or very good lighting, a 1-chip CMOS can be just about as good. Of course a pro camera (which tend to be 3CCD or 3CMOS) will be capable of better picture quality and better control than a consumer 1CMOS.

bjw answers:

A CCD is an imaging chip – Charge-Coupled Device – like the retina in your eye. The imaging chip is what turns light into the signal that ultimately gets written to the camcorder’s storage media. Some camcorders use a 3-CCD array to “see” each color (RGB) individually, then blend them. The theory is that images using this technique are an improvement over a single chip handling all three colors. CMOS is another type of imaging chip.

If by “HD” you are referring to High Definition, this is unrelated to the imaging chip type, so there is no “difference”. High definition camcorders (whether HDV or AVCHD) use internal electronics to capture more data than standard definition. A camcorder can have a single CCD or CMOS imaging chip or 3CCD or 3CMOS array and be a standard definition camcorder. As well, a camcorder can have a Single CCD or CMOS imaging chip or 3CCD or 3CMOS array and be a high definition camcorder… For example, the Sony HDR-HC1, HC3, HC5, HC7 and HC9 are single CMOS, high definition camcorders. They can also shoot in standard definition. The Panasonic PV-GS320 is a 3CCD camcorder, but can only shoot in standard definition. The Sony HDR-FX1 is a 3CCD camcorder that can shoot in HDV and DV. The Sony HDR-FX1000 is a 3CMOS camcorder that can shoot in HDV or DV.

Filming skateboarding and snowboarding is no different that any other sport video capture. You need the largest lenses and imaging chips you can afford in a camcorder. In both cases, it seems common to use a fish-eye (extremely wide angle) lense so it is best to get a camera that has mounting threads to add lenses. All camcorders can do well under good lighting conditions. For high speed action, progressive frame works best – though most consumer camcorders use interlaced frame capture. I have found that increasing the camcorder’s shutter speed (1/250 or 1/500 or more) helps get clearer video, but this works only under good lighting conditions. When the shutter speed is increased, less light gets to the imaging chips – so you need to open the aperture more… Doing this under not-so good lighting conditions will result in poor, grainy, captured video.

Snowboarding has it’s own share of issues because of the cold – electronics, optics and batteries don’t like cold very much – look at the camcorder’s environmental operating range to be sure you are using your equiment in an appropriate environment. Condensation can easily occur when moving from warm to cold or cold to warm, and camcorders can stop working because of this. Once the condensation is gone, it *may* operate OK…

To answer your questions directly, there is no way to “compare” 3CCD and HD Camcorders.

bjw answers:

I would recommend an HD (CMOS) mini DV camcorder. I simply don’t trust the hard drive models, and the video quality doesn’t seem to be as good (to my eyes anyway). For editing, I recommend Adobe Premiere. Good luck!