HD Camcorder recommendations? (upto ?450 price range)

[Lyris]

I'm going to be buying a high-end camcorder in the next month or so, and will be ordering a Canon HV-30 which records HDV (1080i MPEG-2) onto tape. The quality of HDV is still ahead of flash or hard drive based cameras. The price is $760 or so from America, plus a little for shipping, so will come to around £400.

The Euro version is also called the HV-30 but records 25p and 50i instead of the American version's 24p, 30p and 60i and is twice the price.

[hudson]

Ok, finally got my SD9 today. Had a little go filming the dog and zooming at neighbours houses from back garden like a perv Plugged it into the TV via mini HDMI to normal HDMI... very very impressed. Seeing my recordings in hd was grand. Need to work out how to get the sound through the surround sound amp as the cam record in 5.1 apparently.

It is my first ever camcorder, mind, so I've nothing to compare it with. The camera is helping me get to grips with it by just diving in as it prompts you on the monitor suggesting to switch various modes when in certain situations like low-light and other stuff.

The camera itself is lovely. It's the length of a coke can and about twice as thin. Later I will venture into getting my recordings from the SDHC card to the computer...dun, dun, duuuun!

Hmm, wonder if I can get a fisheye lens for this?