Looking to buy video camera

[JAMPILOT]

I know this has been discussed before, but I could not find a thread.
I am looking to buy a new video camera, and I do not know a lot about them.
What are some of the cameras used by FG members. Brand, quality, price ,likes
and dislikes. Thanks in advance for any information ya'll can provide.

James

[ibange]

My girlfriend owns RCTV productions so I get to know a lot...

If you want to spend a whole lot:

Canon XH G1 - badass but you will need a badass computer to handle working on the footage and a badass bank account balance to buy it in the first place.

Pretty much under that, everything falls in this line of features. If I were getting a camera I would start at the bottom of this list of features and work my way up until I hit a camera in the right price range:

1 - HDV - expensive but the quality is awesome, also hard on your computer
2 - #of ccd and ccd size - if you can get a 3ccd camera, DO IT - the color quality is a lot better
3 - widescreen - just looks better
4 - mini DV tapes - still the most versitile as compared with direct DVD, hard drive, and other tape methods.

Good brands are canon, panasonic and sony.

[TazmanianDevil]

Sony Handy cam HD, awesome and not so expensive

[JAMPILOT]

Thanks for the input guys.