I use a Fujifilm AV200 that shoots in 720p. It does a decent job, besides, it was cheap ($60).

Here is the file info reported by ffmpeg:


Duration: 00:03:01.99, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 29563 kb/s
Stream #0.0: Video: mjpeg, yuvj422p, 1280x720, 30 tbr, 30 tbn, 30 tbc
Metadata:
strn : FUJIFILM AVI STREAM 0100
Stream #0.1: Audio: pcm_s16le, 44100 Hz, 2 channels, s16, 1411 kb/s
At least one output file must be specified



I was wondering if kdenlive 0.8.2 was capable of rendering in original format and specs with title/effects changes without having to re-encode?

No. Kdenlive will always encode.