Been lurking for a while and finally decide to post up. I have an opportunity to purchase a HD cam and looking to spend 2500 or under.

Must

1080
24 mbps
30f
24p
12-20x optical zoom
manual focus

etc etc etc...

Been using a Sony handycam for years and ready to move up to a prosumer level quality. It seems that more I research, more question I raise and decided to leave it up to the other member to provide some advice.

Thanks in advance.

Spend 1500 on the camera, and 1000 on a new quad core computer for editing.

Spend 1500 on the camera, and 1000 on a new quad core computer for editing.

Thanks...Already have a Mac that will do all that I can throw at:)

What kind of mac do u have? AVCHD files don't work to good yet on macs. Theres a big price gap between consumer & prosumer. $1300 for high end new consumer cams & $10,000 for prosumer. Thats until RED changes things & that will be a big change.

You don't need 10K to buy a good prosumer camcorder. For 8K you buy the best one, the Sony EX3. For less than 3.5K you have few choices, like this Panasonic to be available in September: Native 24P, pro audio XLR and what looks like a very good lens. I love this 28mm (35 mm equivalent) wide-angle, for example. Check it out:

http://www.dv.com/news/news_item.php?articleId=196603795

BH is already taking orders.

Sergio

The EX3 has no SDHC slots, no avchd, but wins the ergonomics with that slanted shoulder rest. The Panasonic AG-HMC150 has no ergonomics. Both of these models are a bit to big for my tastes. I thought about getting either one of these when there prices went down I will pass & look to the better consumer models