I know this is a little bit higher in pricing than you are looking for but when I made the YouTube clips of BRAZIL and THE STRANGER last week I used two cameras. The main camera was a Sony Z1 HDV camcorder using mini HDV tapes. I bought this camera a few years ago as it is professional quality but reasonably portable. It also has XLR inputs to allow the user to by-pass the on-board microphones. If you compare these videos with the ones I made a few weeks earlier of THEME FROM SHANE and STARDUST you will, I hope, hear the difference. The earlier videos were made using the on-board mics while the more recent videos were made using two external Sennheiser gun mics fed into the camera. As I was doing this by myself I had to rely on the camera's monitoring / limiting facilities and The Stranger is a little compressed as a result but I am very happy with the sound on Brazil. The second camera was a GoPro Hero HD unit which is a great little camera that can be used for a whole range of "on the go" activities. Have a look at
http://gopro.com/products/?gclid=CKS61s ... 4Qodt1G7ZA The sound is not that fantastic on this camera and I just used the audio to allow me to synch the camera footage with the the main Sony footage and then deleted it from the mix. The GoPro comes with a fantastic range of mounting kits and a waterproof case - you can even take it diving to about 10m!! I bought it as, while I am yacht racing, I can mount it on the boat in various places and get action shots without worrying about it getting wet and then edit them in with shots taken on the full sized camera. Just for fun I mounted it on the side of my car and drove round in the pouring rain getting some great footage - I know, a bit sad, but I was just looking to see what it was capable of in adverse conditions.
Brian