I currently have a Canon Zr500 and a Kodak Zi6, But soon am looking to buy an HD camcorder.

I was looking at the Canon HF100 and it looks to be a good deal.

On Newegg there is a refurbished Canon HV20 for $430.

Basically im just looking for your opinions, What do you feel is the best HD camcorder for the money? Im open to any format accept DVD, Would prefer MiniDV/HDV over flash based/HDD media though. I also do not want a Pocket HD Camcorder as I already have one (Kodak Zi6).

Any input is appreciated.

From what I can gather, the serious contenders in this range are the Canon HV30, my wife has one of these, and the Sony HC range, HC9 is the latest model I believe.

If you can get a Canon HV30 for the right price, prices should be coming down now much more as they have a new HV40 available, then I would seriously look at it. The Canon HF100 is good so long as you can get past, what I regard as a ridiculous control feature, namely the joystick that is located on the lcd screen. I don't know what Canon engineers were thinking or smoking at the time, but when you want to control primary functions such as manual focus and you have only a joystick to do it, it will involve a lot of faffing about and missing a never to be repeated shot.

yeah - that joystick is a sick joke.

My ancient sony pc4 has a touch screen - much better - not all that is new glitters...

It's a great camcorder up to the point of the joystick being added, and then in my opinion it stops being a great camcorder. Nudging that up and down trying to get the shot in focus is a gimmick.

Yeah, Right now im most likely considering the HV20 for $430, But I will keep looking around while Im waiting to get the rest of the money I need.

Thanks for your input, Keep posting.

I bet it's fun using that joystick-controlled zoom. If you're holding the cam with both hands as most people do I guess your left hand has to vacate the main body of the cam to operate the zoom, as it's on the LCD screen. *This doesn't seem too good for stability.
On my little go-anywhere Canon MD205 cam (not my main cam) the zoom is on the top of the body, so you can operate it while still holding the cam in both hands. This has to be an improvement on the joystick-operated model above.
The strange thing about it is, the zoom control operates with a sideways motion, rather than with a forward\backwards motion. I haven't found this to be a problem though, it just seems a little unnatural.
*Unless you're supposed to support the cam in your left hand by holding the LCD screen in your left hand, and operating the zoom with your thumb. If so, it doesn't seem to be a good idea to support a cam by holding the screen in one hand.

I agrre - my disposable sony pc4 is so much nicer to use than mant modern small cameras. A few years back most had simialr and logical lay outs - now in the scrabble to ' innovate ' we have all manner of stupid variations.

That's another design feature I'm pissed with, the sideways zoom. It feels so un-natural to push the thing sideways and not away from you or towards you. When you look at the space on the top rear of a lot of camcorders, I feel the designers could certainly have fitted a small zoom rocker with W and T buttons.

i have a zi6 and i was looking at the canon zr5oo which is a better camera because ui want a good camera that is under 200