Again it comes down to the age old question of what can you afford and what is right for the level you are going to use it at. There are so many cameras on the market from hand held consumer models to pro-sumer models to professional studio cameras like the Sony DSR-400's and the new Sony XD-series of cameras. The best thing that I can recommend is to do a search on various sites like this one and read about different cameras and different experiences, you can try kisky forums, and
www.dvinfo.net is also a very good reference site. I have been freelancing for about two years now and I started in Photography and jumped in to Videography and started filming with the Canon XL1S and now use their High Definition line of cameras becasue it fits what I am doing. In my opinion, from what you described, the best thing that you can do is to start with a nice HD consumer level camera like this one,
http://www.kisky.com/forum/default.aspx?f=8&m=52393