I'm in the market for a 3ccd camera in the $2,000 USD range to be used for shoots specifically:

1) 80% in night clubs doing DJ's and bands

2) 5% "haunted" houses, searching for spooks and spectres on someone else's dime

3) 15% in the mountains for academic endeavours like shooting geologic formations, rock stratification kinda stuff

I'm movin on up from a Sony DCR TRV-22, which was my first purchase, and has served me well during my cirriculum's basic production classes. However it's time to move on up to the adult table... Bigger toys for bigger boys and all of that... I intend on keeping it around, but want a more professional piece of machinery to work with.

Anyways, is this selection of a camera ideal for my purposes, or should I look elsewhere?

The GL2 is a good machine and is capable of doing what you describe. Not sure if spooks will appear on the video though, CCDs might just see through them. <g>. Keep in mind that a replacement model could be announced any time now given that it has been on the market for several years.

I am only familiar with the GL1, but, it won't do for night shots. Most ghost hunters swear by the Hi 8. For clubs though, it does pretty well.

seems like a large percentage of your work is low light. conventional wisdom says the low light leader is the PD 150/170. (i wouldn't know, i own a GL2! but then, most of my stuff is outdoorsy...)....have you considered the sony as an alternative?

The GL2 will not do well in low-light(canon's achiles heel - is that spelled right?) Anyway I have a GL2 and it does AWESOME in well light areas but below par in low light - very noisy. I recently bought a Panasonic AG-DVC30 and it rocks! Both in high and low light. It also can shoot in 0 lux with infrared light. It also saves you about $200 over the GL2 and it's a 3ccd camera. I would check out the Panasonic line before making a decision.

If you want good low light performances, buy a Sony VX2100 or a PD170.
They are the best in low light.