Advice for a total Newbie

[Lawman1965]

I'm looking to move from still photography to making some videos. The kind of video's I want to shoot are outdoor pursuits, Mountaineering, Rock Climbing, Mountain Biking and mountain walking. So, you can see that weight is a huge issue as I'll have to carry the thing up mountains (heading to Alps in July and would like to use it there at altitude). Quality is also an issue - I don't have a HDTV but will be buying one in the next year or so. I have a mini Tripod to carry in the mountains which takes my DSLR (Canon 20D) and large lens with no problems, so I'll be using this with any camcorder so I need a Tripod mounting point.

Converting Analogue to Digital in not an issue as I don't have any video tapes so AV is not a huge thing, but I'd like to have the option of fitting a helmet cam and have read that I'd need AV in. On that matter - do the helmet cams record at a lower resolution or at the full res of the Camcorder?

Again, I'm not sure about what media - HD, Flash memory (I have an 8GB SDHC card already for other things), DV or HDV, I'm totally confused . I think that the Flash memory Camcorders tend to be lighter, is that true?

I've been reading reviews and looking at several websites and I'm totally baffled by the huge range of Camcorders on the market at the moment. Budget is an issue - anything below £600.00 but I'd really like to keep the spending below £400.00 if possible.

Any help on this matter will be much appreciated.

Rich

[zoobie]

Someone said the HDV Canon HV20 was down to $500 here in the States...using standard miniDV tape, it also shoots DV but this would defeat the purpose of having HDV in the first place
Some have also mentioned problems shooting at high altitude with HDV...so you'll have to double-check this
You'll want at least a travelling tripod because any small shake with HDV turns out huge when displayed on 42"+ HDTV sets
I would say start shooting with HDV now and worry about editing down the road...but others here disagree and still recommend the tried and true DV