you found an fx1 for 999? thats wayyyy to cheap. im pretty sure they go for around 3000. it has to be a scam. there are alot of websites out there that say they are selling you a camera for crazy cheap and they just rip you off. so be carefull about that.
anyway it really depends on how much you wanna spend and what type of filming your into. no camera is really better than another. Id say stick with a nice 3ccd camera. dont worry about HD yet, unless you have an hd tv, or can burn hd dvd's then its kinda useless cause its gonna be playing in SD anyway. and if your gonna put your vid's on the internet its still gonna be SD. Â
out of all the good 3ccd cameras the most popular are the dvx100, vx2100, and gl2 ( stay away from a gl1 if you can) i wouldnt really say any of those are better than another, but if i had to, id say the dvx100 is usually the best choice simply because it has so many manual controls and you can really get the image you want. but that also means you are gonna have to spend alot of time setting up and stuff. the vx2100 and gl2 are better for point and shoot stuff.
the vx2100 has easily the best low light performance, its amazing how well it does. people usually think vx's are best for "skate style" filming. yeah they are great for it, but you can also get a really good "film" artsy look too. its just more vx users prefer to shoot skate style stuff for some reason. you can get the colors and everything to be very intense and vivid which i like.
gl2's are great for getting a soft film like artsy picture too. i havent ever used on so i dont know a lot. but most the footage ive seen is usually pretty soft looking and not to intense, like what you might get out of a vx2100 or dvx. thats definatly not a bad thing, it can make amazing shots for skiing.
ive seen vx footage that looks better than gl2 and dvx footage, dvx footage better than the others, and gl2 footage better than the others. you really cant go wrong with either.
and make sure to try and use all manual settings all the time, except for mabye like auto focus every now and then when you have to. but always manually white balance, do manual exposure, set up all the custom presets for that day etc. otherwise if you dont you might as well get a 200 dollar handi cam at wal mart cause its gonna look the same. the more time you spend setting up and everything the better your footage is gonna look. Â