best advice in this thread...
Unless you've got a lot of money, for what you plan on doing with a camera, this is all you should need. Within your budget, and with your experience, I think you'll find HD to be a huge huge pain in the ass. It takes up huge amounts of space on your computer, and is tricky to edit with if you're new to it, and even if you're not new to it.
If you're looking to get into videography seriously, then going HD isn't a bad thing, but i would go cheap with your first cam, and then save up for a nice one later on when you've had more experience shooting and stuff.
Just the opinion of a senior in college majoring in video production. No I dont know the most about the subject, but I've been doing this stuff for quite awhile now, and have helped get others into it as well. Having a good experience in the beginning stages is key to going far with it. If you're pulling your hair out trying to figure out how to downconvert HD, you're going to hate it.
Just a little more about HD, I'm not saying it's dumb to get it for stuff like taping your soccer games, but it's not very versatile. Obviously you need a HDTV to get any benefit from it, but when you burn it to a DVD, it won't be in HD, unless you have a HD burner, and since HD DVD is dead anyway that's useless, so you'd need a bluray burner, and on and on the complications go. My humble opinion is that you should go to an electronics store, and mess around with their mini-dv cameras, and choose one that is the most comfortable for you to hold, and obviously has features you want. Good luck.
