HD Video / Camera combination question

[Greg Haag]

I was asked to help my church make a decision on a new camera for a satellite church to video worship services and take pictures of events. There perfect camera would allow for a minimum of 45 min of hd quality recording for podcasts and have the capabilities for good still image quality. They have a budget of approximately $2-3M. Do any of the current cameras with hd video record for that long? Any suggestion would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Greg

[Les Sparks]

I think you need to really think about what your needs are. If your primary need is video, then any of the large number of HD camcorders by Canon, Sony, etc. will do a great job for not much more than $1,000 or less. You can then purchase something like a digital rebel or Nikon equivalent for less than $1,000. This way you get can get independent still and video coverage for your budget. The camcorders handle easier for making video (IMHO) than do the combination digital still/video cameras.
What do you want to do with the video and stills? How do you plan to edit the video? If you just plan to post the stills on the web, than you might want to think about any of the lower cost Point and Shoot cameras.

Check http://www.hv20.com/ for information on the video capabilities of many of the HD cameras the http://www.hv20.com/forumdisplay.php?47-DSLR-and-Still-Cameras
sub forum provides quite a bit of information about the various DSLRs for video.
Les
http://www.ncsparks.com