Finally, make sure you view actual productions he has made. It should be the highest quality possible. Most consumer camcorders will produce inferior results compared to commercial cameras. Commercial cameras with 3 chips are the best. 1 chip cameras are lower quality.
Digital formats are usually better than analog formats for two reasons.
Modern digital formats record much greater detail than any consumer analog format, such as VHS and Hi-8. They are even better than some broadcast analog formats still in use. You can copy and edit digital data without any loss in quality. This is not true with an analog format. Every generation of copying an analog tape results in a noticeable degradation in the picture.