Consider using a HiDef camera like the Canon HV20. Uses standard DV
tapes but is a full HD format camera. Around $900 or less. I've been
experimenting with an HV20 in the cockpit for capturing footage for
advanced XC training purposes. A very short clip (no narration, just
raw footage) is at: http://vimeo.com/343957

Now this has been massaged by Vimeo (a partner posted this there as a
test), so the clarity is not all you can get from HD, but when you see
the crispness and detail from raw HD footage, it's fantastic.
Especially when you think that our sport often relies on small visual
details (sky or ground), then HD is the way to go. Warning: the files
are enormous (13 Gigabytes per hour of footage), and there is no
reliable PC based system for ingesting and editing. Buy a dual
processor Mac with max memory and disk and you'll be set. Also
consider a half Terabyte external drive too. I don't know about
lipstick cameras that can output an HD usable image, if anyone knows
about that, I'd like to hear about it. I saw the table from a
previous post that showed the HV20 supported, but that could be at a
lower resolution. Hmmmm

Kemp