Advice sought on HD camera rental

Thanks in advance to all who respond.

I'm lining up a potential shoot in Roswell, NM (yes, the town famous for its little green men/beings) that will be aired on Discovery in the near/far future. The producer, and Discovery require HD and my gear is SD. Preliminary indications are that shooting should take about a week, maybe less. Roswell, as you may have guessed, is not the HD center of the universe. Closest cities are Albuquerque, Lubbock and El Paso for possible rental equipment. The tentative target date for shooting is the second week in September.

Never having shot in HD I am asking who/what/where would be best to check with and is most 'honest' on their pricing? The producer wants to offload the footage to a firewire drive so which, if any, camera would be best for that? Also, I want to know if the learning curve is short or long for HD shooting vs. SD. I currently shoot with a Panasonic DVX 100B. Letterbox and Anamorphic won't cut it for the producer, or Discovery.

Again, thanks for all input and feel free to add any additional tidbits I, most certainly, left out.

John
john@omproductions.net
575.624.1010