Unfortunately, I've had excellent luck with Canon miniDV cam's, but nothing but problems with the 3CCD Pani's. A couple of my friends have them and they have all broken over time. Silly breaks too, like a crack or tape becomming jammed.
I have the Canon Optura 40 and I LOVE IT. Even though it's not a 3CCD, the picture is EXCELLENT and the camera is of great build quality (which is extremely important). I believe that they have now replaced it with the Optura 60 (but it is still very similar).
In terms of compatability, you must be very carefull. Not all Firewire camcorders are compatible with the mac. I too believed that any firewire camera would work but one day when I tried to import footage via a Sony Firewire cam in iMovie, no luck. I'm not too sure of the specific model though.
I know apple has a compatability table on their site under the iMovie support page. I would try to use this as a guide.