Need Professional Quality on a Budget

Sorry, I tend to type a lot when things are important to me, but I guarantee there is a lot of important detail to the question here.

I hadn't even looked at/seen the hv30 but it seems like a good middle ground both in price an quality, namely when compared to the other Cannons I was looking at. I also like having a view finder, even if its poorly positioned and locked into place, it is part of the reason I was looking at the Sony HDR-SR11 despite being about $300 more then the others. However, I do have to wonder about transferring the video, my Cannon ZR supports fire-wire and I have the cable and it goes much faster than USB, at least supposedly, but I don't see it mentioned anywhere on the reviews. It may also influence other things as I may need a new computer(not on such a budget as out of school loans) and would be a Macbook, but only the one in the plastic shell has built in fire-wire, which is the only thing the new aluminum bodied ones lack.

I do need to ask, assuming you have experience with both, is there any bonus in upgrading to a hard-drive/digital memory based camcorder over tape. I mean, I know tape and film are more tried and true, and where my experience is, but all digital would have the bonus of being able to film and store more without repeatedly switching tapes. Furthermore, if there is no real bonus either way, is there any reason to not go on considering the HDR-SR11? It currently is the highest rated and ranked camera in my range here, has a view finder that even moves, and lots of other bonuses, like a slightly higher optical zoom.

Also, purely hypothetically, I have to wonder if I'd be better off holding out and saving up for something like the Panasonic AG-DVX100B. The lowest price is about $700 out of my set range, but I technically will not need a new camera until the summer. Would there be any bonus to saving up that much that long for this bigger, pricier, yet higher rated and more professional camera or would I be better off staying at the higher end of consumer camcorders?

you will need a firewire connection for the hv30. the hdv format is higher quality, better for fast motion since theres less compression, and archiving on the tapes are very convenient.

i have had brief experience with the sr11 and i love it, but working with avchd is a real pain

performance between the canons will be pretty much the same, it comes down to if you want tapes and a viewfinder

also, avchd takes a fast computer to edit it. hdv is less demanding

I'll admit that I don't have any idea how different hdv and avchd are that different, only they are both HD level video. The computer I'll be using will likely be a base-level Macbook (2gb DDR2 memory, 2 ghz processor and NVidea GeForce 9400M) so still fairly powerful, and I'll have my PC for everything but film and other such creative works.

I guess I'll choose the hv30 since I trust and enjoy Cannon, as well as the Mini DV format. As much as I'd love the bigger an better camera, the current economic situation, and amount of saving it would take, is probably unnecessary. To bad that I'll have to be looking at the old-school Macbook instead of the aluminum, but at least the fire-wire I have won't go to waste. Just to check, because I don't have the software yet(nothing to edit for this semester of school) the hdv format will work in Final Cut, namely Final Cut Express right?