FIRST CAMERA PURCHASE

what about hd with sd card format? ive been hearing dv tapes are on their way out of the picture. what you personall recommend for that budget range? thank you.

Who told you DV tapes "are on their way out"? So are gas-powered autos and lots of other stuff, but miniDV tape and their "support infrastructure" will certainly be around for several years. As long as the pros use that media (see the Sony HVR series, JVC GY series, Canon XH and XLH series) and other media in the consumer space continues to be problematic with too-much compression (when compared to DV/HDV), challenges with archiving video, issues with data recovery and expensive $/gig storage, I don't think we'll see any immediate change. As much as the manufacturers would like us to get away from tape, they have not yet provided an acceptable replacement.

If we go back to your original post:

The least expensive prosumer cams that meet your technical requirements are already listed. Those that meet your newly introduced non-tape requirements include the Panasonic HVX200 series and their AVCCAM series. These are well outside your budget.

If we drop the 3CCD requirement, that takes you to the consumer range of the Canon HV30/HV40 and Sony HDR-HC9. These are the least expensive camcorders with a mic jack (1/8" - 3.5mm) and have manual audio control and other manual controls. These are likely your best bet.

When you impose non-tape, that takes you to the Canon HG series and Sony HDR-SR series and it replacement the Sony HDR-XR series (hard disc drive) and Canon HF series or Sony HDR-CX12... You can check the specs yourself - but the last time I checked, I *think* they all have a mic jack - but their manual audio is lacking compared to the miniDV tape iterations.

Due to the known issues with hard disc drive camcorders, I avoid them. I guess the flash memory cams would be OK - but their use of anemic AVCHD compression just does not cut it.

As a point of reference, HDV compression allows the video data stream to run at 25 mbps. The "consumer grade" AVCHD runs at about 17 mbps. The Panasonic AVCCAM pr series runs in at around 24 mbps. The Sony HDR-XR series makes an effort to catch up, but being hard drive based, they fall off the list. In any even, consumer-grade camcorders have small lenses and imaging chips and cannot handle low-light environments well - resulting in grainy video.

maybe on consumer cams, but professionals still stand by minidv