What is a good video Camera to purchase?

I have been posting and reading this forum for a long time.
I was wondering if anyone has any good insight on buying a video camera for around $600-$700.
I teach a video editing class and I've got about $2800 to spend on video cameras. However, I need more quantity over quality at this point. I've got the classic case of too many students and too few cameras.
Unfortunately I know less about cameras and more about video editing.
Basically I'm looking for the best bang for the dollar. Standard Def MiniDV- is fine and so is interlaced. But if i could get Hi-Def Progressive... that would be cool.
Any help is greatly appreciated.
Thanks!
Fraky

Hi,
Here might be a good place to start evaluating cameras in your price range
http://www.camcorderinfo.com/ratings.php
depends whats important to you, manual settings, optical zoom . . . etc . . etc . .

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It's a trade-off ... which is to say, it's like Life in general, right?
That many people that close-in is gonna be awful tight. Two people, ok ... three pushing it ... four is gonna work you some. Getting talent any farther away from the background given the limited distance the camera can move is not likely, without getting too wide a view from the cam exposing off-screen areas.
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I might be a little confused
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Also http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=4266538#4266538
9:05 PM Friday; July 27, 2007

What is a good video Camera to purchase?

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