Some commercial movies are recorded using top of the line still cameras from Cannon and Nikon (multi thousands of $$$ for the body alone). From there, price and quality go down. What quality level & features do you require? Are you using separate lights? Does weight matter?

Canon has HD camcorders for less than $300. If you want very good video with a minimal amount of still photo quality, I would go with one of these. I have an older HF100 and get fantastic results from it. For a still camera that shoots pretty good video, I have a Fuji Finepix F505EXR which is discontinued. Here is a newer model from Amazon.com:

http://www.amazon.com/Fujifilm-FinePix-F600EXR-Digital-Optical/dp/B005GMRVYK/ref=sr_1_17?s=photo&ie=UTF8&qid=1341226471&sr=1-17

How about an ipad?

i commend Cannon and Nikon, price is suitable, quality is good!

iPod Touch 5th gen looking pretty good. Even has a wrist strap now. 5mp f/2.4 lens and backside illumination for good low-light capability, HDR, LED flash, faee detection, tap-to-focus, 1080p full-HD video with image stabilization, geotagging in wifi areas, 4" ultra-high-res screen, send and receive to anyone, play back on screen or wirelessly to your TV.

Oh, it can also download and play music and videos, surf the internet, send and receive texts and emails, and play games And it's light. Great camera that does other stuff too.

Well, I have an IPAD but it's a little too big to carry around while sight-seeing.

On that note, anybody know how to transfer video and pics from IPAD to PC???