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The prices of decent camcorders for filmmaking have dropped so low that no aspiring film director can use that as an excuse for not making movies. Though you can shoot a movie with a consumer-grade camcorder, there are things on it that will need to be upgraded to make it through a film production.

Mic

The microphone on your camcorder will not give you the kind of quality you'd expect from a film. You may not even want to record audio on the camera itself, but if you do you'll need a better mic. You needn't take the microphone off, but you do need to make sure it doesn't record and rather an external one does. This camcorder will need an external mic input and hopefully some gain knobs otherwise you might consider recording to mini-disc or other digital recorder using a mixer.

Battery

The battery that comes with your camera isn't meant to last long. It's for shooting birthday parties and family gatherings, not all-day film shoots. You will need many more batteries than just this one and you may want higher capacity types. The manufacturer will likely offer additional batteries for sale and you can also get some from generic sources. In addition to more batteries, consider getting more chargers so you don't have a bottle neck when it comes to filling the batteries with the juice you'll need.

Light

Camcorders come with lights sometimes. Unless you want to do a interrogation movie you should not use it. Depending on the style of your film you may be able to get by with minimal light, but not likely from the direction of the camera. Light from right by the lens tends to flatten subjects and make them look dull. If you do want a small camera light get one that attaches by a cord or has its own battery. That way you can angle it to get more defined shadows and a more dimensional look.

Recording On Tape Alone

Tapes are not reliable. No digital medium is completely reliable, really. You need a backup from the start if you can. Instead of just recording to tape alone, attach a firewire cable from the camcorder and connect it to a notebook computer to ensure you really have what you hope you shot. You could also connect the main camcorder to a second one and that would be a sufficient backup system.

When using camcorders be smart about them as far as you can afford to. Some of these techniques may not be feasible for the type of shooting you are doing and that's fine. Just be aware of what the possible consequences are and do what you can to mitigate them.