Everyone's going to go HD sooner or later, so you're better off investing in it, even if it is expensive.

A lot of distributors (TV especially) are now looking almost exclusively for HD content--there may not be a lot of HDTVs out there yet, but there's also not much HD content, and a growing demand for it. Apart from having a superior picture, your chances of getting a larger distribution deal should go up significantly if you shoot in HD, and 3-5 thousand dollars will get you a fairly nice camera (I'm quite happy with my $1500 Sony HD camera).

That being said, HDV is a dead-end format and essentially a way for prosumer filmmakers to transition from MiniDV to HD, so don't expect your new camera to have a 10-year life span like the various uncompressed HD packages out there. If that doesn't bother you, go ahead and buy an HDV camera (I bought mine figuring that it would get me through four years of college and maybe some freelance work before it'll need to be replaced, which is about right for the price I paid for it). If you'd rather have a camera that you can hold onto for years and squeeze every last penny out of, wait another two or three years to switch over to HD.

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Andrew Gingerich
Exploding Goldfish Films
Check out my vodcast on iTunes: http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=96931870
and my blog at http://www.exgfilms.com

Other than the Panasonic HVX200 witch only records HD to hard drive or P2 cards is there a true HD (not HDV) camera in the 3 to 5 thousand range?

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

The Sony HDR FX1 is a nice high def camerea. Even if you don't use it for shooting high def, you can still use it to shoot regular mini DV footage.

"Pain is tempoary, film is forever."