Firewire is the standard for moving footage off a DV camera. I'd say try to stick with Panasonic and Canon as they have some very nice lenses on their cameras and I hear all sorts of issues with Sony cameras. I'm also not a huge fan of Sony at the consumer level. That being said I applaud them for leading the way with HD in an affordable manner. Something to consider, which will narrow your options is your audience. If you are shooting narratives or documentaries then you'll probably want to make sure you have 3CCDs for better image and color and a camera that shoots progressive scan.
If this is just for memories and such, I think the Canon Optura line is probably great as are any of the Panasonic PV-GSxxx cameras that fit into your budget.
Canon has really great image quality. I have an Oputra 200mc and get to use an XL2 that both surprise me with the richness of the images. I do not like that Canon has taken away the manual focus ring on many of their cameras and replaced them with a terrible focus wheel on the back of the camera. My only beef with Panny is their lack of 16:9 CCDs in their GS line.
As much as I like Canon, I'd be hard pressed not to go with the Panny PV-GS500. I'd sacrifice some pixels and do a stretched 16:9 for a 3CCD camera that's got Leica lenses and a focus ring.
Also there is much hoopla about tapes to buy. Stick with the Panasonic Pro Quality or the Advanced Master Quality. They are great and priced right.
www.camcorderinfo.com is a great site for users and reviews.
All this said, I'd wait as long as I could, since I suspect you'll soon be able to get a nice 720p camera for around $1200. You may be able to get a Sony HC3 for slightly above this online. Their retail is $1700.
Another thing I'd suggest is to find a good shop that sells the cameras you like, take in your PowerBook and ask one of the sales folks if you can shoot some footage and transfer it to your PowerBook to determine which looks the best and which camera acts the best with iMovie or FCE or FCP, whichever you are using. Most likely, if they are commission, will not have a problem. If they do have a problem, you probably don't want to give them your money anyway. Important step here...buy the miniDV tape from them. It's a sign of good faith. Then proceed to test away! Most true camera shops are going to either meet a reputable internet price or throw in some goodies to make it worth your while to buy from them. Even if it's a bit more, it'll be worth it if anything ever goes awry with the camera. One shop here in town will lend you one of their rental models of your camera if your is ever in the shop and there's nothing like having a great resource in your backyard.
Apologies for the U.S. amounts and model numbers, but I'm sure you can find your counterparts easily enough.
cheers,
j lincoln
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