"Now I am still confused!!:) I am getting sensory tech overload researching ALL of the camera's."
Jay,
(In my best martial arts master's voice) Calm yourself young shooter. Do not allow 'sensory tech overload' to blow thy head up!'
Seriously, the mantra all entry level shooters should have looping through their is 'Good and Cheap'. Unless you are seriously going into business (which I don't recommend until you've got a good command of the basics and enough paid and pro bono shoots under your belt to make a solid demo reel) there are uncountable hordes of consumer grade cameras out there that can help you do exactly what you mentioned.
I mean really, some of these 'happy cams' that are hybrid point and shoot still jammies that also shoot video in the hands of someone who knows what they're doing can turn out respectable product! To avoid 'overload' and going 'critical mass', view your camera choices like this; cam's I could buy right now and after a couple of hours fooling around with the instructions could go and shoot something. That's a consumer level camera. Anything above that is prosumer and pro both of which I'm reading you are not ready for yet.
Go take a look online at consumer video cameras at outfits like B&H Photo Video and Adorama (very reputable and if you don't live in the same state, no sales tax!) You're options are very good. Tape based cameras are really going to be your best bet at this stage. Cheap and tape is plentiful (mini-dv's run less than $3 ea. at Adorama depending on the brand).
If not tape there are many choices for flash media based cams. I would say stay clear of Harddrive cameras cause if anything happens to the drive, it'll make a fine paperweight. Flash media cards particularly SDHC are getting cheaper by the day (they're just small so you'll have to keep up with them.)
HD if you have software and a computer capable of pushing it, otherwise DV is just fine. Most stuff you're going to be putting up on the web anyway so if you light it, expose it, focus it and shoot it well with clear sound nobody's going to care that it's not HD! Go for cameras that offer progressive scan first as it looks so much better on computer screens and you don't have to 'deinterlace' it like interlaced video to get rid of those funky lines you'll see on a computer. You'll know the diff because they'll say a number and there will be a little 'p' (progressive) or 'i' (interlaced) with it. Now interlaced isn't bad mind you, you've watched it most of your life.
Far as which camera or software you should get, I'm not going to answer that in this post. There are dozens of previous posts discussing those very things that will be more help.
Happy hunting!
