...So that rules out panasonic...
lol canon fan? i'm in film school and as for equipment available for checkout, we have 15 dvx100b's and 10 hvx200's. we used to have about 10 gl2's and 10 xl1s' but after those spent more time in the repair shop than in the field, the school scrapped them. we have 1 xl2 and that's simply to show students how interchangeable lenses work on video camera's. not trying to bash you but saying panasonic doesn't last is pretty ridiculous.
anyway, back to the topic at hand. If you can afford the 3CCD Panasonic cam then get it. 3CCD will give you much butter picture than any single CCD cam will. for demo of this, you can check out a short "music video" (a friend of mine singing karaoke) that another friend and i did for fun. The shots with poor quality were shot on a Canon single CCD camera and the other shots were done with a Sony PD-150 3CCD (beyond the realm or price you want to pay for a cam to be honest). Heres the link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LmVJWZxC_X8
If you think I'm biased about the Panasonic cam well, I am. I shoot on a Panasonic DVX100B, love panasonic, and haven't found a reason to switch yet. But here are some things to look for that aren't brand specific:
1. Storage Media - MiniDV is still used by industry professionals to this day. It offers great quality and with tape, as long as you use a tape only once (possibly twice) you won't have to worry about it being corrupted. Hard Drive cams look appealing (because when you plug it in it shows up as an external hard drive and you just drag and drop your clips). But alot of these hard drive cams use a file format that iMovie won't recognize. If you use the cam companies conversion tool, it will probably encode in MPEG2 which, as previously answered, won't go directly into iMovie. So that 20mins you saved by just dragging and dropping the movie file turns into 45mins of encoding and re-encoding. And every time you encode, you lose quality (unless you go uncompressed). Mini-DVD is absolute trash if you want to edit on ANY platform. Older mediums (Hi8, Digital8, SVHS, etc) are old and outdated. Stay away.
2. CCD's - CCD's are like memory, the more, the better. And like hard drives, the bigger the better. You're only really going to have two options when it comes to CCD amount; 1 or 3. If you can afford 3, get 3. If not, look for the single CCD cam that has the largest CCD size. Your usual options will be 1/3", 1/4", and 1/6". Price will vary among manufacturers.
3. Zoom - Here's where manufacturers will try to impress. They will offer a cam with 12x Optical Zoom and 38423847389x Digital Zoom. Digital Zoom is crap, ignore that number. Optical Zoom is where you're going to want to look. You really don't need that much zoom from what you're describing and going into zoom mode requires a steadier hand so for zoom, I'd recommend a tripod or a shoulder mount.
4. Additional Features - Yeah when you're in Best Buy and the clerk is showing you all the cool features like the sepia look and the negative filter, these may entice you (I too used to work at Best Buy, I know how they work). But to be honest, you will NEVER use these features outside of the first 11 minutes you have the camera. They offer no real value in trying to make a decent home movie. Using in-camera effects will cheapen the value of your movie. Additional features like these just clutter up the menu's. And as far as still picture abilities, forget it. Buy a cheap digital camera and it will produce better stills than any video camera ever would. Its called a video camera for a reason, it shoots video.
5. HD vs. SD - While the HD factor is very tempting, you have to keep in mind where your video is going. If it's for playback SOLELY on computer screens, then jump for it. Or if you plan to output to 35mm film. But if you want to play it on your TV, it's still going to have to be SD. Unless of course, you hook up your computer to your fancy pants HDTV. But if you plan to burn these videos to DVD then they will have to be SD (unless of course you have a Blu-Ray burner or HD-DVD burner). Plus, most of the general population is still using SDTV's. When Blu-Ray/HD-DVD burners/players come down in price and most of the general population is using HDTV's, then I'll make the switch.
6. LCD Size, accessories, etc... - Sure that 4" LCD screen looks great but you have to consider what it takes to run that LCD. More power needed = more batteries needed. You're not going to be watching the video on the camera, so who cares? a 2.7" screen is fine. Accessories to look out for are bags/cases, storage media (if you go Mini-DV), tripods, lens filters/protectors, batteries, etc... I would personally go with as much as you can afford. Don't skimp on the bag as this is your protection. A lens filter/protectors is a great investment because $40-$60<$300 (assuming you paid $300 for you cam). A tripod will set you free and allow for much better video than handheld.
General Tips for Camera's.
1. If you go MiniDV (and I recommend you do), only use a tape once (possibly twice). Once you pick a brand of tape, STAY WITH THAT BRAND! Every brand uses different lubes on their tapes and multiple lubes can cause cross contamination. You don't want that. Also, once you're done with a tape, put it back in its case and keep it in a cool, dry, protected place. Your tapes should last for years. And one other thing, be sure to run a head cleaner through your cam if you decide to change tape brands and run it once for about 10seconds every 50 hours or so.
2. Go for the biggest CCD you can afford. If you can afford a 3CCD cam, go with that.
3. If you can afford a cam with a manual focus ring, go for it. Manual focus rings will allow you to do rack focus shots (fore subject in perfect focus, back subject out of focus, you move the focus ring, fore subject out of focus, back subject in focus). Just like on the news! Of course, you will also need a cam that has some manual control of fstop. But this may not suite what you need.
4. Sony camera's use batteries that have AMAZING life. You can get 5-6 hours out of Sony batteries. Plus, Sony are very tough, durable cameras.
5. Stay away from Canon. (Lol, just a joke.)
EDIT:
6. Look for a cam that will allow you to turn off that stupid Date/Time stamp. Again, another "feature" that yells amateur.
General Tips for Shooting.
1. Stay off the zoom. If you need to make your subject bigger, move in closer. Nothing screams AMATEUR like zooming in and out. A small zoom, maybe for 1/4 of a second, just to bring you a little bit closer to the subject is fine. But this wacky zoom in zoom out stuff is ridiculous. And no one wants to look at that. Sure this won't work all the time but, most of the time it will.
2. Mind the rule of thirds! You can split any composition into thirds. From top to bottom, and left to right. Google it for examples. But always, always, ALWAYS keep your talent's eyes in the upper thirds. Another thing that screams AMATEUR is a subject that is totally centered. Heck, even the News anchor's eyes are in the upper thirds.
3. Give headroom. If your baby is crawling or walking on the floor, don't zoom in so they fill the entire frame. Instead, pan the camera slightly ahead of where they are going. This is how the pro's do it. This will make people go "Wow! That was the best baby crawling on the ground sequence I've ever seen!"
That's all I can think of at the moment. I may edit later or add more if it's desired. I hope this helps a little. If you have anymore questions, like the other guy said, feel free to ask. You can PM me if you like as well.