Camera(s) help ASAP for newb [Buying and transfering]

Hey, Im looking to update an old camera for my dad, its an old camera and I dont really know how much to spend.

Im mainly looking for the following.

-Easy Mac support
-Good Price/Performance ratio. (in various price ranges if possible)
-good battery life, simple operation but not a "kiddie" cam, know what I mean?

as for the old camera its using tapes and I need to get the tapes on an external harddrive (how big should this be?) how would I go about doing this? only out I see is an "a/v out" pictured below.

Main problem is...my pop's birthday is in 2 daysso..this is ASAP, thanks in advance.

-Luis

PS. Looking for some good headphones too, I want better noise canceling than the ipod ones (backround noise causes me to up the volume ALOT) im by no means an audiphile so..nothing too pricy. Thanks.

Pictures.

i have a mini dv jvc cam with all the papers and the box pm me if interested and specs

You must get a camera with a firewire/iLink/IEEE-1394 interface. That allows you to download the recordings from the camera to you computer. If it does not have that interface, do not buy the camera.

DVD disk cameras are mostly useless with a Mac.

Some cameras have (or had) a pass through option where you could connect an older analog source such as that older camera, and send the signal straight to the computer. You could just fake this by taping to the digital camera and then playing back into iMovie.

3 CCD cameras give a better image.

Go to a big store and look at them. Perhaps you'll get lucky and find a sales person who has a clue.

Cant get to a big store (am busy until the day) so I want to have as good an idea as possible.

3CCD = good
im guessing HDD (harddrive) = Good
Where should I shoot for pricewise? I dont want a pro model, but not something low tech either, want something that will laste me a year or 2 and then I can keep once he reupdates. (believe the term would be "prosumer" )Its mostly Home movies but Mac compatability is essential (what formats would the recordings be in, which should I look for?) I'll be doing any editing thats going to be done, will probably be using iMovie on my macbook (2ghz 2gbram), I've yet to learn the software btu sounds like it'll all be ok. Thanks again for the help.

I'm not sure about HDD cameras. If they record as regular DV then fine, but I think they may use some new codec which may not be compatible with iMovie. So to be safe, I think you want the camera to use the DV codec. This Apple page is mostly useless on the subject. HDV would seem to be a codec supported right now for HD. I know Apple has added some extra support for Final Cut Pro, but who knows when that will come to iMovie.

Price is all over the map. The new HD consumer cameras may qualify as Prosumer now. Starting price is around $1000 and up. I think 3 CCD cameras may start as low as $450 or so.

You can try searching the forum to see what others have used.

Personally I think you should just give your dad an nice birthday card with an IOU for a camera with an UPTO $ value. You simply left this research too late.