Just like choosing a gun or an optic, the first thing you need to do is determine what you want to do with the camera.  Make a prioritized list of your needs, then shop from there.

If you want to pull the video in to your PC, then there are only two real choices for formats: MiniDV (tape) or Internal Hard Drive.  HDD models are convenient for occasional use, but they are limited in recording time, so you must dump the video to computer often.  And you can't add capacity easily on a trip.

MiniDV is still the preferred format for most use.  The tapes are inexpensive and are their own archival media.  They record video in DV format, which is the highest quality available for standard-def cameras (aside from the $100,000+ pro cams).  They transfer the data to your computer via FireWire (IEEE 1394), and the transfer is lossless (no loss of quality).  The downside is that it is tape, and helically-scanned tape at that, so the drive transports are fragile, complicated, and expensive to fix if they get broken.  You have to pay attention at all times when loading or handling the tapes.

The MiniDVD recorders are fine for video that you don't intend to edit, but DVD format is lower in quality than MiniDV, and so quality suffers more if you edit them.

Know that the vast majority of the cameras below $1,000 are the video equivalent to a point & shoot camera.  Nearly everything is in "auto mode" and most cameras have very little in the way of manual controls.  And even if they have limited manual controls, they will be buried inside of a menu system.  What does this mean?  It means that these cameras are really designed for filming a day at Disneyland or a Little League game, but aren't going to be very good at "creative" or "professional" camera work, because these require more extensive manual controls to allow the camera operator to achive the desired result.

A couple of other points:

LUX Ratings - If you've ever been in a real TV studio, to a televised award show, or anything similar, you'll notice that everything is lit super-bright.  That's because video cameras need a LOT of light to get great video.  From the camera's perspective, ANYTHING shot indoors that isn't using 50 amps worth of lighting is going to be a "LOW LIGHT" situation.  Thus, the better your camera performs in low light, the more usable your footage is going to be.  A lower/smaller LUX rating is better.  Single-chip (1 CCD) cameras will usually have lower ratings than 3 CCD cams, but don't be fooled; the 3 CCD camera is ALWAYS going to look better.

Resolution/MegaPixels - Don't buy into the MegaPixel hype.  The max number of pixels for NTSC (standard-def) video is 720x480, which is a bit more than .5 MegaPixels.  That is all you need for video!  More is NOT better!  The reason for the extra MegaPixels is to allow the video camera to ALSO take still pictures.  The problem is that ALL video cameras are LOUSY still cameras, and so after the first week or two, you will probably never use your video camera for stills.  Unfortunately, increasing the number of pixels for still-pic use has a negative effect on video picture quality.  Don't buy a video camera for its still-camera performance!

Lens Size & Zoom - Video cameras need light; as much as they can get.  A larger lens will gather more light, so in general, the bigger the better.  And all video cameras have some amount of optical zoom (meaning: the lenses move to refocus the light to adjust the zoom).  Most also offer DIGITAL zoom, but you NEVER want to use digital zoom.  Digital zoom just means cutting off some of the pixels and increasing the apparent size of the ones left over.  Video quality goes down very fast when you use digital zoom.  Make sure you can turn it off.

Well, that's a decent start.  If you have any other questions, post them here and I'll try to help.

-Troy

Quoted: Beware of buying Sony. They put too much "anit-copying" junk into their products which make them a real pain to work with. Take a look at the Canon and Panasonic offerings.

There is no "anti-copying junk" in Sony cameras; at least not the MiniDV cameras.  And even the new Canon XL2 doesn't touch the picture quality of a Sony VX-2100 or PD-170.  The reason the Canon is as widely used as it is is because of the extensive manual controls.  Sony doesn't make a direct competitor, because they are (correctly) afraid of cannibalizing their pro line of cameras.  Canon doesn't play in that market, so they have nothing to lose.

-Troy

DVCPro isn't actually any better in quality than DV/MiniDV (neither is DVCAM).  The only reason those two DV-based formats even exist is because there are still a TON of people who grew up in the analog days who still insist on editing their video linearly, by shuttling the tape back and forth.

DVCAM (Sony) and DVCPro (Panasonic) both run the tape faster, spreading out the tracks on the tape, and DVCPro also uses a different type of tape.  Again, the only "gain" here is that the tapes will hold up better to the abuse of linear editing and extensive tape shuttling.

Of course, the CORRECT way to edit digital video is to import it all into a computer first, in one pass of the tape, and then edit all on the PC "non-linearly".  But people who are used to doing things the old way don't want to change, despite the huge advantages that non-linear computer editing allows.

-Troy

Quoted: DVCPro samples at 4:2:2, it stores MUCH more information than any prosumer tape does. It is capable of more lines of resolution. They can store up to 180 minutes on a single tape. It also costs a lot more than a consumer tape, obviously.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MiniDV

DVCPRO
Panasonic specifically created the DVCPRO family for ENG use (NBC's newsgathering division was a major customer), with better linear editing capabilities and robustness. It has an even greater track width of 18 micrometres and uses another tape type (Metal Particle instead of Metal Evaporated). Additionally, the tape has a longitudinal analog audio cue track. Audio is only available in the 16 bit/48 kHz variant, there is no EP mode, and DVCPRO always uses 4:1:1 color subsampling (even in PAL mode). Apart from that, standard DVCPRO (also known as DVCPRO25) is otherwise identical to DV at a bitstream level. However, unlike Sony, Panasonic chose to promote its DV variant for professional high-end applications.


www.adamwilt.com/DV-tech.html

Resolution & Sampling
 
DV/MiniDV   720x480, 4:1:1 (NTSC)   720x576, 4:2:0 (PAL)
DVCAM       720x480, 4:1:1 (NTSC)   720x576, 4:2:0 (PAL)
DVCPro      720x480, 4:1:1 (NTSC)   720x576, 4:1:1 (PAL)
Digital8    720x480, 4:1:1 (NTSC)   720x576, 4:2:0 (PAL)

-Troy

Whatever.  None of this is relevant in the sub-$3000 market anyway.

-Troy