Happysucks - you gotta be kidding about mini dv camcorders. mine cost a whopping $750 plus shipping, and the results i get from it are excellent - as good as camcorders costing a lot more. for that matter, a really good camcorder costs only around $3000 and the best one i've seen is under $6000.

the more expensive camcorders have bigger ccd's, which means you can get better low-light performance, and they also have manual controls. my camcorder has some manual controls, but they are mostly in menus rather than convenient external buttons like on good camcorders.

i think dollar for dollar, mini dv is the most economical and high quality way to go - i've seen some very high quality video done on it. my videos would look spectacular but for my lack of video editing knowledge - 'cause the raw stuff is just beautiful.