WIRED and many others rated this the best HD cam of the year. This is a pretty decent price, but unlike Digital Cameras, they aren't going to be increasing resolution anytime soon, so my guess is that as technology matures these will cost the same as regular camcorders do now. Maybe if I plan a big exotic vacation in the next few years I'll job, but not now.

B&H is a great place to buy electronics, they are really great in explaining the details of all the cameras they sell. I hva ebought there before and would buy again.

Circuit City has this for $751.99 and free shipping. No gift card or DVD though. Great deal if you have any CC gift cards floating around.

does it support up to 720p or 1080p?
and how does store the video? tape? or memory card?

Good deal taking into account the $150 gift card, resell the gift card.

#4: MiniDV for storage. On camera HDMI output. It can shoot HD in 24p and 60i.

1080p

I've always wanted a high def camcorder but sometimes b&h has prices that are too high. i say shop online and you can probably get it cheaper at amazon or even buy.com

Tape based camcorders will be out of date in a couple of years. Get HV20's sibling HG10 which let you records hours of video on harddrive.

I bought this camera prior to the birth of our son in July and it was over 1k, so this is a good price.

I'm extremely happy with the price. Now to get the 1080p tv to show the video on (mine is 1080i)..

#9, Friend of mine has Hard Drive camcorder and he said it is (acoustically) noisy. This is also recorded and quite annoying. Hard Drive has lots of moving parts, so the noise is understandable.

For tape, if one tape has problem you just throw it out and use another one. For hard drive, you probably have to bring it to the shop or trash can.

Not really sure how can you determine the miniDV will be out dated in couple years...

Some new camcorders record on SD cards. This is nice but may be very limitted storage capacity.

My 2 cents.

I think #11 thought about his argument more than #9 did.

Another reason miniDV is still the "hot action" is that it is by far the most durable media to store your raw footage on. Hard Drive? Come on. Once the camcorder is full you'll have to transfer it to you computer's HD. Once that drive is full, you'll have to transfer it to your external drive. Once that drive is full, you'll have to buy another external drive. Once that drive dies, you no longer have a family video or "memories" of that ex-girlfriend.

By the way, Professional cameras mostly use MiniDV... they aren't going anywhere in "a couple of years."

Wow. I've been thinking of buying a camcorder for a while now, but if these 1080p cameras go down significantly in the near future, then the wait would definately be worth it. How long do you guys think until these reach to 200-400 range like normal cameras now?

This is a really expensive cam, but the fact that it records HD and it's 1080 is attractive, but way too expensive. Probably only useful if you have a big family or go on a lot of vacations.

Got one from circuit city for 750 less 10% off coupon. + tax. Nice Camera overall. It's funny that some say its expensive. Seven years ago I paid $1200 for a mini dv sony camera. As far as I'm concerned $700 for this is a steal!

Light it up!

Couldn't seem to get search to work...anybody have any links to reviews/recommendations on camcorders? thanks in advance.

Well as a single dude w/ no kids... a camera is just for sh**s and giggles. $800 for a toy is a bit much, but $200 I could allow myself considering a camcorder is one of the few toys I dont have yet.

THis camcorder has an essentially a unanimous agreement of the best looking pivtures until you get to the 3K$ and up range of semi-pro stuff. If you want to be a mini-spielberg or want to get the very best quality footage to some day edit down to a great looking video then this is the camera no doubt. Yeah it kinda sucks that its tape but for long term storage there is nothing better unless you want to have mult-TBs of harddrive.

Also the HDMI provides a near raw video stream that would provide green screen quality that would equal most TV stations today.

Good for those close up Vajay-jay shots.