IndieFilmGears.com

Canon HV20
Great HD camera. This is my first camcorder I have ever owned and I love being creative with the HV20. When I first noticed the quality when I plugged the camcorder into an HD TV I was amazed..we all were! It can be crystal clear. Outside footage definitely looks the best. It captures great detail. The footage is rarely shaky compared to other cameras. I got this camera at a great price too so it has been worth every penny so far. The zoom is nice mostly smooth. It fits good in the hand. Very easy menu to customize your settings. The 24 fps is really cool everything you shoot has the ability to look like a film! pretty cool. I wanted a camera to make short films and so far I have had great success. I would recommend this camera to anyone looking to spend around 0-0.

A bit out of date, but still a decent camcorder.
A bit out of date, but still a decent camcorder. It shoots fine, I have a 35mm DOP adapter on it, with some Canon EF lenses on it, plus a mattebox. It's really fun to shoot with.

Just get one already...
I'm going to keep this short because there are several longer reviews that you can read.

Basically, if you want to get into some cheap indy filmmaking, or just want a good home movie camera, this is the one. Yes, it's got its flaws, but with some good accessories, you'll be golden.

So get this, a Rode VideoMic, a new battery, maybe a lens hood, The DV Rebel's Guide, and you'll be all set. [...]. You can get some great images with this camera if you know what you're doing.

Oh, and 24p. It shoots in 24p. Get one now.

Great Choice
I know that these are no longer on the open market, so my review is simply to explain why I think these are an excellent value on the used market.

Bottom line is this - while they keep adding features and improving paper specs, I haven't seen any need to upgrade from my HV20. The feature set is excellent and picture quality is as good as any I've seen on a pro-sumer HD camera. Further more, while I understand that hard drive recording can be useful, I actually prefer tape, as I can grab inexpensive 3 packs (right here on amazon) and never have to worry about running out. I like to keep my archives available as well (as opposed to re-recording over everything and depending on my computer versions) and don't want to have to worry about dumping to another drive before taking new footage.

Frankly, I know that everyone wants the latest and greatest - which this was, not so long ago. My opinion is that if you can grab a reasonably priced HV20 on the used market, you won't be unhappy.

Beware: motor noise ruins your sound recordings
After 2 years with my HV20, I'm splurging on a new SDHC flash drive camera, because of all the HV20 motor noise, which ruins my video sound recordings. I love Canon & my HD video camcorder, and I bought all accessories from Day 1 including the DM-100 directional microphone. But it doesn't help the motor noise problem. It may even be worse with the DM-100, I can't quite tell. If anyone has ideas to solve, please post.