a pv-gs500 is what i use. its pretty damn sick. I got mine for i think like 700 idk but my brother knows. that is 3ccd which means 3 color sensors. it makes the quality better.
HDV is high definition. They have mad nice quality, are cheap. a good one is only like 500ish on ebay. they take up a lot of space but that really isnt a big issue.
Hard drive blows. my cousin had one and i hated it. they are expensive for not too good quality. they also create like new clips and stuff each time you hit record. its mad gay.
if you dont care about quality and want a really cheap one, just go to best buy, find one you like, then go home and buy it from an online store for like mad cheap.
online stores deff have the best deals by far. ive had good experiences buying from them but you never know when you come across a ripoff store. i like to use the site resellerratings.com just to make sure the site is a legit one
anyway i think what you want is prolly a cheap HDV or 3ccd camcorder. stay away from that hard drive shit