Need help narrowing down my list of Pro Camcorders

[Nolam]

Hey guys!

I'm an amateur filmmaker and I'm looking into getting a good, affordable Professional Camcorder for less than $3000. I'm in High School and will be needing it to make a collection of videos for my portfolio for colleges, and I want it to last me a long time.

The camera I'm seriously considering at the moment is the Canon XF100 (link here). It's perfect for my budget, seems very highly rated, and has a lot of features and extremely high quality footage

I can deal with the CF cards' price and gain problems that people are talking about (seems to have been fixed in a firmware update and with the custom profiles people have made). What concerns me is that people are saying that one CMOS 1/3" sensor isn't good enough. Also, it is almost two years old.

What are your guys' thoughts? What else should I look into? (I am NOT getting a DSLR or any variation)

Thanks
-David

 

[Alcove Audio]

DR-100mkII is only about $200 on BH!

Then the price came down in the last week.

Why exactly would you recommend it over the -40?

The DR-100 has a physical volume control so you can (with difficulty) adjust volume levels on the fly. And yes, to someone like me it would be worth the extra cost. Actually, I would use a mixer in front of it.

In fact, I don't own any production sound gear; I rent what I need on a project-by-project basis.