There are three things that are VERY important when getting a camera:

Three CCD’s
Manual controls for the iris, shutter, focus and white balance.
A microphone input.

In the $1,000 - $1,500 range:

The JVC GZ-MG505 is in the $800 range. It has a mic input and records
to a 30GB HHD.

I like the new JVC GZ-HD7. I’ve seen these on line for as little as $1,200. A
really nice Fujinon lens makes a huge difference and full manual controls is
important. Three 1/5’ 16:9 progressive scan CCD’s are pretty impressive for
a camera in this price range. It records directly to a built in 60GB hard drive.
It has manual controls, a mic input and an excellent focus ring which is surprisingly
rare on small cameras.

Both the JVC HD5 and HD6 have a mic input and both record to HDD - the HD6
can record 1080/60p through HDMI - pretty impressive.

The Panasonic PV-GS400 is terrific 3CCD cameras. Unfortunately, it’s hard to
find and that’s too bad. It’s a great little camera. The 500 doesn’t have a mic
input - what are they thinking?

Sony DCR-HC1000 is very similar to the Panasonic cameras. If you’re more
comfortable with Sony, this is the camera for you.

Close is the Canon HV20. It records in HDV (1080i) and 24p (60i), has a mic input
and manual controls of white balance and focus but it uses one 1/2.7” CMOS sensor
rather than 3 CCD’s. For me the jury is still out on the CMOS. And it’s so small the
handling is difficult.

The HV30 adds a 30f (Canon’s “frame mode”) in addition to 24p.

The Sony HDR-SR12 has a mic input and a good sized 120GB HDD. It uses a 1/3”
CMOS chip and like the Canon is really small. Because of the input placement, the
mic cable kept getting in my way.