Help me buy new camera(s) for work

[chanaleh]

Oh, help, my shutterbug friends.

My workplace (a K-12 private school) needs me to buy two things:

(1) A starter DSLR camera that will be fast enough to capture action shots. We use crappy point-and-shoot digital ones on a daily basis, but you just can't photograph small children adequately with them. The number of priceless shots I've missed over this year is killing me.

(2) A mid-range camcorder, because the Canon FS200 that I've been using for 3+ years? I just DROPPED ON ITS HEAD and bustimacated. So, um, might as well upgrade. Do I automatically go HD? What can I get for spending, say, $600 as opposed to $300?

So, hivemind, the point is: what should I buy? I have money in my budget to invest in this equipment, but I am kind of at a loss.

Comments

[deguspice.livejournal.com]

To re-think what I said about using a digital camera to take movies, is that if you're likely to want to have one person record an event, and another person take photos of the event, you'll still need two cameras (though it might be useful to have a pair of identical cameras so you can share accessories, and training is simpler).