you can forget HD at that price point. You are pretty much solidly into consumer standard definition camcorders there, so the other thing that might be a big ask at that level is a mic input.

I've just looked around, and a Canon MD215 has a mic input and is around £200. It's a mini DV cam and for standard def footage I still reckon tape is the way to go. Full non-compressed video, easy to capture and edit on your PC. There is no headphone socket which is kinda expected at that price, but it means that even if you have a nice external mic, audio is a bit of guesswork.

A Panasonic NV-GS200 is around £300 on ebay which is a 3CDD Mini DV cam with a pretty good spec and a nice Leica lens, Mic in, Headphone out. I seem to remember when it was a current panasonic model it got quite good reviews in the video mags.

But stuff of this level although pretty good, is not semi-pro level stuff, those sort of cams are the likes of the Canon XL2s and a long way out of your budget. That said a good consumer DV cam in the right hands can pull off amazing things.