Canon SD vs harddrive vs Panasonic 3CCD

[soh]

Hi there; new to this forum so I'm pretty excited to connect with techies and the like.

Perhaps someone has the answer to these questions: I'm shooting on the fly and need a tiny mini dv or sd camera. Everyone talks about the Canon hv30 but I'm thinking SD is the future; is it really a huge compromise on quality if one records on the internal harddrive or removable storage?

 

Also, has anyone tried the Panasonics? For example, the HDC-SD9 3CCD? Wondering if it's inherently better to get the 3CCD; I've always liked Canon image quality but the cameras mentioned above aren't 3CCD.

 

I'd also like to attach lights/mics onto the cameras so that's a consideration too. I know the HF11 doesn't have a proper hotshoe...

 

Thanks!

Suzie