Help Me Choose a Camcorder

Hey guys,Im looking to buy a new camcorder.My budget is about $550.I currently have a Sony dcr-trv33, but when i take it out to film i cant see into the lcd screen or viewfinder.When i tried out my friend cheap $200 panasonic it work 5x better than mine and you could actually see into the lcd.The lcd on mine just appears BLACK.Ill be using it primarly for filming skiing and wakeboarding.I will be using a head camera with it, so i need an analog input and LANC input.It need a firewire input so i can load it onto my computer.I would like the option of recording a video and shooting a picture at the same time and the option to take rapidfire pictures.I am currently looking at the Canon Optura 400 Coach Edition for $565 or the Panasonic pv-gs120 for $509.Which should i go for and why?Or is there a better alternative?Thanks

On a slight sidenote, I too am looking for a new camera, but it just needs to be a cheapo with analog inputs and a LANC input for a helmet cam. Any ideas? There are some cheap model Sony's floating around eBay that don't look too bad. Thanks.