I doubt widescreen will be standard in two years and, assuming you know what you are doing, any quality 3 chip camera will give you broadcast quality video. DV50 has been around for a while, mabye as long as DV25 has, so it's nothing new. AFAIK Panasonic, w/it's DVCPro50 format, has been the only company to use it. The choke point for DV is the camera used, not the format itself. Using comparible cameras DV will get you BetaSP quality. The only way BetaSP exceeds DV is for blue/green screen work. You see the "widescreen" look everywhere because it is very invouge right now. $20 says most of the stuff you see was shot 4:3 and the top and bottom of the frame was masked off to make it look like it was shot in widescreen. The transition to HD and widescreen is happening but it's happening very slowly. I bet in 10 years most of the TVs in US homes will still be 4:3. They might have an HD converter box on them or something so they can recieve the HD broadcasts (assuming SD broadcasts are completely off the air by then) but they'll be 4:3 TVs none the less.
Just an FYI there is no image quality different between DVCAM, MiniDV, DV, or DVCPro. They all use the same compression. DVCAM and DVCPro are Sony's and Panasoinc's, respectively, line of pro DV cameras. The tapes themselves are of better physical quality than MiniDV tapes in order to better handle the rough and tumble professional world. The difference between MiniDV, and DV is just the physical size of the tape. MiniDV is, well, smaller and can only hold up to 60 minutes per tape. DV is larger and can hold up to either 2 or 3 hours per tape. And, unless specified, MiniDV/DV, DVCAM, and DVCPro will not playblack in each others decks/cameras. So if I shooting something in DVCAM, the footage won't play back in a MiniDV camera. DVCPro50 does have superior image quality to DV25, but the cameras are more expensive (low-end starting around 6 grand w/the lens sold seperately).
Native 16*9 cameras aren't very common yet, and they usually aren't very cheap either. Almost all native 4:3 cameras have some sort of "widescreen" button that mimics 16*9 but that usually comes at a cost of image quality. All though IIRC the "fake" 16*9 on the Canon XL-1s is one of the better fake 16*9 cameras.
The XL-1 is a tried and true camera. The Sony VX-2000/2100 and PD-150/170 are also very popular pro/prosumer cameras. The VX is MiniDV while the PD is DVCAM, IIRC.
Just out of curiousity which G5 are you looking to buy? Does the 5g for the G5 cover additional RAM, HDDs, Monitors and speakers? Speaking of monitors, you'll want to have the computer hooked up to a NTSC monitor (AKA a TV) so you can really see what the video looks like. What things look like on a computer monitor and what things look like on a TV are two very different things. Are you going to buy a deck, or just use one of the cameras as the deck? You can get away w/using the camera as a deck but 1. it will be much slower than a deck (in terms of responsiveness of shutting back and forth thru the tape) and 2. it will wear out the transports in the camera much faster because camera transports aren't made to take the "abuse" that transports in a deck are. I would strongly recommend getting a deck. Have you factored in the cost of tape? What about DVD? Would they want things on DVD too? Does the church have a sound/PA system that you can tap into? If not you'll need to buy some mics, most likely wireless, so you can get usable audio. Don't forget about tripods and cases for the cameras. You'll also want to make sure that the camera/deck you choose is compatible w/FCP. A popular choice amoung pros is the Sony DSR-11 (it is DVCAM).
Lethal
