If you are absolutely 100% dead set on getting a DVD cam, then (as much as it pains me to say) I would look at those from Sony. I would normally recommend against getting a DVD cam because they could only write to DVD-R media, but they seemed to have addressed that issue. I use Sony DV cams at school, and I must say they are quite nice. The model
DCR-DVD301 looks very nice and is their top line DVD cam. My humble recommendation would be the
Canon Optura Xi. It is a DV cam, but I think Canon's optics are better than Carl Zeiss's. It retails for $1299, but I found it at OneCall (legit online retailer for Canon) for $1067.73.