I`m in this too. I`m looking at the new Panasonic HDC-SD100 and educating myself as I go. Like most things you get what you pay for. I learnt that when I shot a wedding with 2 DV cams - one was my nice 3 chip one, one a cheap model. The difference was like chalk and cheese. Here`s some personal pointers:
For dark shots you want a nice big chip, be it CCD or CMOS. 3 chip cameras sacrifice the ammount of light that can fall on each chip since they are physcially smaller to fit inside a consumer model. Having said that, I`m aiming for a 3 chip model since a) good processing to improve low light has come on leaps and bounds and b) in half decent light 3 chip models are better than a single chip model.
I`m also going for CMOS instead of CCD since now there is hardly any difference in quality (finally) - and CMOS dosn`t give the telltale vertical stripe you get with bright points of light (eg fireworks)
This model records to SD card. I don`t like the thought of (ab)using a hard drive in the parks, at the risk of loosing many days footage. Plus having to spend more to backup/empty it whilst on a trip. As darthvader mentioned, compression shows up the most when you have a plain, dark screen or heavy contrasting objects moving quickly. What I`m still looking into in how much HD per gig I can get; this model uses the newer AVCHD format - compressed HD which is uncompressed before using. With the price of SD cards falling and the same pros as using tape but with non of the cons I`m almost convinced.
Finally, how good is the artificial intelligence? How good can it focus, adjust to lights levels, hold detail against sudden changes in light? How easy is it to use the manual settings? Personally I`ve had to factor in manual focus ring, external mic input and hotshoe, viewfinder as well as screen, optical not digital stabiliser....
Finally, avoid digital zoom like the plague and don`t worry about anything above 30 frames a second since domestic TVs can`t show anything above 29.97fps (NTSC) or 25fps (PAL).
