Get a camera with the biggest chips and the biggest lens. A big lens allows you to capture alot of light. Big chips allow the same as well as a good contrast ratio. This will be important to you because I assume since you are going to be shooting fireworks you will want to shoot at night. Unfortunatly the HD cameras in that range have small chips and lens’. The DVX-100 is a tried and true camera with a large 74mm lens and 1/3 chips it is a great camera and does very well in low light (It was better than the $20K dvcpro cameras that we had). Some on this fourm also recomend sony’s vx-2100 but as I have never used one I cannot comment on its performance. I do believe however that the DVX-100b (which was recently refreshed) will probably offer the most flexibility as it is a newer version of an already great camera.
