For just a little more you can get the Panasonic PV-GS300 or PV-GS500 is nice starter 3CCD camera with manual controls and a mic input. Having 3 CCD's instead of one, manual controls and a mic input can make a huge difference.

=============================================
The aim of an argument or discussion should not be victory, but progress.
Joseph Joubert, essayist (1754-1824)

The panasonic gs300 is great, i have the old version of it and love it. Any of the panasonic gs cameras with 3ccd's are great. Great color.

The only problem with the GS300 and GS500 is the lack of a headphone jack, so you will have virtually no idea of how your audio is going to sound until after you get done shooting. The Panasonic GS250 and GS400 both had mic and headphone jacks. However since Panasonic had discontinued these models, and has moved these new cameras to more of a consumer price point. The older models are going to be hard to find. You might try Ebay. Or for a little more money that the GS500 you could get the Panasonic AG-DVC30, I think its about $1500US. It is in their Pro-line however and offers more useful features than consumer models. Whatever you do though, DO NOT get a DVD camcorder, the MPEG 2 compressed video that these cameras output is not very workable in NLE software. Its lower quality than DV too.