Camera for film school not sure on choice???

All the film schools here in the States have cameras that the students can check out when they are shooting assigments, so investing in a $10,000 or more 16 mm camera, lens and sound gear will not be necessary and if you go to work for a production company after school, they will be supplying you all the gear you need. When you finally have the experience, contacts and a good script, you will probably be renting the camera you need in any case. NOTE: ANY camera you would be using for school or producing films will certainly last two years, really closer to two decades The schools know for film programs are UCLA and USC in the Los Angeles area, SDSU in San Diego, UCLB Long Beach and Brooks Institute of Photography in the Ventura/Santa Barbara area. Here is a link to the kinds of motion picture cameras you can rent as well as the new three sensor, HD video cameras starting to be used for some theatrical productions. http://www.birnsandsawyer.com/_camera-rentals/16mm-cameras/ I suggest you first look at what cameras your school has to loan to students and see what brands they are and then start looking on the used market for one. ARRI and Ecair were the two I used most. NOTE2: Link to DV, HD video cameras http://catalog2.panasonic.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ModelList?storeId=11201&catalogId=13051&catGroupId=14616 As you can see, I spent your money twice over. It may be that you will want to buy something like the under $4,000 Canon XH A1S, but with it, you can not expect to produce other than student films. http://www.usa.canon.com/consumer/controller?act=ModelInfoAct&fcategoryid=175&modelid=17885#ModelTechSpecsAct