Are you shooting for personal use or is the plan to shoot video of your customers? If so I would look at the Sony XR-500/520 (same camera - double the HDD) or the Canon HG-21. Both are the current state of the art in single chip CMOS Hard Disk Drive cameras.
I wouldn't look at a tape based HDV model for commercial purposes, the tape transfer time will kill you during capture as the speed is 1 to 1. HDD models transfer faster via Firewire/USB with random access to footage. And HDD models can store 10x+ the footage on the drive vs. a single 1hr. tape. The latest models at exactly the same quality as HDV - which until now was the only reason I'm still shooting it - my next camera will be an AVCHD model with a big HDD. Or an SSD model.
A very new option is the Canon HFS-10 - it's a full SSD (Solid State Device) recording camera - no drive to power. The downside (if there is one) is you currently sacrifice recording time for convenience - but that just changed:
Sony's just pre-announced the CX-520V, it's an SSD camera with 460 min. recording time at the highest HD quality setting. It's going to change the dynamic once again when released. Where it gives a little back to the Canon is probably the low-light rating and the Canon has more frame rate recording options. Either will work and give you a superior HD quality image though. If there was one downside, it's that Sony's proprietary media costs slightly more.
Unless you're in a huge hurry, I'd wait to see who announces a housing for the CX-520 before buying anything. As important as the camera is, making sure you have available housing options might be as much or more so depending on your application.
You'll also need a fast dual-core or quad processor and several GB's of memory to edit in HD. And a Blu-Ray burner if your ultimate intent is to provide finished HD DVD's to your customers.
One important consideration will be future upgrade capability of your housing. There are several housings made for Sony cameras that can house more than one specific model, the L&M Stingray HD/Top Dawg II is one, they house variety of current/future Sony models - with some trade-offs in control functionality. Sony is pretty much the only mfr. with the option to "plug-in" a housing and have electronic controls.
Canon housings use mechanical control rods so are more model specific. Some mfr's such as Equinox in MI have a retro-fit program but that seems awkward from Roatan.
One important feature is the ability to Manual White Balance. It's a feature lacking on some of the Sony housings as Sony moved the functionality to the LCD screen a few years ago so any electronic housing needs a way to access it manually. This is usually via control rod although one of the latest housings I've seen, the Patima, incorporates the remote inside the housing - kind of a novel approach.
Read some of the recent posts here, this topic is discussed repeatedly. There's also a complete video mfr's list stickied at the top of this forum. And we have representatives from some mfr's and most of the better known u/w video resellers participating here as well.
