whats a good HD camcorder?

A "good HD camcorder" is one that is flexible enough to capture good video under a wide range of lighting and audio conditions. In my opinion, this means have a lens filter diameter of 70mm or larger and a 3CCD or 3CMOS imaging chip system 1/3" or larger. When you find the camcorder with these two items, all the other useful stuff is included. Like manual focus, manual zoom, mic jack (audio input), manual audio control and more on the outside of the camcorder and not buried in a menu. The Sony HDR-FX7 and HDR-FX1 are good examples - and about ten times more than your stated budget.

In your budget range there are point and shoot cameras and pocket camcorders that can capture video... like my Canon AS3300. The ability to capture good video under low light conditions is poor and audio options are not too good. But the video can get into my Macs and using a transcoder like MPEG Streamclip to convert the video to MOV or MP4 file types, iMovie can edit and render for YouTube use.

Use a camera instead. I have a Canon 650D and it is better than any camcorders i have before, the quality is amazing. And you have a lot of settings.

It might be over budget but it is quite cheap for a DSLR. It is perfect for imovie.

It is just GREAT! especially for youtubers.

You could check out my channel and judge.

panasonic tm900 is the best choice

a hd camcorder....dear mother of peanuts i hate the word camcorder.