These days most video cameras are actually of remarkably good quality. Don't consider analogue formats, like Hi8 or SVHS or such. Today the DV format - and Hi-Def is king and queen in the pro-sumer/industrial video field and Firewire is the way to transfer footage into your computer to edit.

In short, if you can, get a High Definition camera rather than "regular" TV format. First the quality of picture is superior on HD, but it's a much better (wider) size, which makes interesting pictures more possible.

So a camera between $1,000 and $4,000 today gives you roughly the same quality as those 20 Lbs BetaCams you'd see TV cameramen running around with 10 years ago (about 500 lines of resolution). There are differences in "Chip" sizes, some have three or one chips, and some have interchangeable lenses. Other variables are manual control of sound, programable presets and multi-speed zoom control. You want to be able to manually override things like focus, exposure and such - but don't worry too much about this, because most cameras have ways to do this. Another good feature is picture stabilizers which help take some of the shakes out of your handheld attempts for greatness. Don't get an electronic stabilizer, take the mechanical one. The electronic kind steals a little safety-zone from the chip, which the mechanical stabilizer doesn't. I find the Canon GL2 and the Sony VX2000 or HDR-FX1 to be wonderful cameras. They run around $3K each. They use 3 chips. They also have auto/manual sound control.

So next you will want a tripod. You can shoot handheld, but it gets extremely annoying to watch after a minute or two. Some cinematographers like the "feel" of hand-held shots throughout, (sometimes called "bumpy-cam") but to me it is too disorienting and I find it irratating. Often you will see hand-held sequences during scary passages in movies, precisely because this technique makes the viewer uneasy, so it has it's place, just not all the time in my view. I saw some footage from the Grand Canyon once, shot with what we later termed the Firehose School of Photography - you can imagine what that was like.

A little footnote here: Everything in media creation communicates to the viewer.
If you can see that someone is deliberately moving the camera around for effect, it seems odd and takes away from what is happening in the scene.

Back to tripods. Bogen has some I like very much. They should be lightweight and easy (read: fast) to set up. Some have legs that have little screws that must be tightened - others have snaps. Snaps are faster. A video tripod is different from a still-camera tripod because you want to be able to tilt and pan in a smooth, controlled motion. In the old days we had expensive fluid and gear heads for some heavy cameras - these days they do it cheaper with oil, friction and disks, (I think).

Decent tripods are around $200 to $400. Some have quick-release plates, so the camera can go on and off quickly - this comes in handy when you discover extraterrestrials in the grain silo or other things demanding flexibility. Quick release is a good thing.

Another nifty item to help control the camera is a SteadyCam device, but it's a little more advanced. The operation of the camera should be secondhand to you before you get into this technique, and you have to learn to "fly" the device. The effect is very good, though, once you get the hang of it. I use one called the JR from SteadyCam in LA.

So now you have a camera, film, tripod. You are ready for anything that moves.

Whoops. What if it talks also?

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