What's a Cheap HD Camera I Can Buy?

I've been into filmmaking for awhile and made the mistake of buying a crappy yet fairly expensive (400 USD) MiniDV camera. As such, I'd like to buy a new camera. If somebody could suggest one that fits the following criteria, I'd appreciate it a lot.

HD
External mic port
Lots of manual settings (focus, exposure, etc.)
The ability to change lenses
Between about $750 - $1150 USD

Hopefully this is possible. Please let me know if I've left out any filmmaking essentials.
 
All cameras do when you are using the onboard mic. With the
mic that close to the camera it will pick up sounds close to it.

There is almost no difference between the HV20 and the HV40.
 
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When you say HD, do you mean 720p, 1080p, 2K, or 4K
External mic port; XLR, 1/4" or 3.5mm?
Why do you need to buy it? (see my thread in newbies forum)

The Canon's I listed certainly don't shoot 2K-4K...that's massive, and only caputured on prosumer cameras like the RED and such...

You're probably looking at 720p for the price range we're looking at...which is fine.

I don't know if there are any XLR ports...but at this price, your going to have to work with your sound.

Also, bare in mind, the two Canon's I listed aren't that great in low light...just be aware of that.

Cheers.
 
I know I have mentioned this before but in the under $1,000 range I am really happy with my Xacti HD1010.

It shoots in SD, 720p/i and 1080p/i and has a 300fps lower definition feature. External mic port and lets you set focus, aperture, shutter, iso, etc all manually. And Amazon has it for only $349 (http://www.amazon.com/Sanyo-HD1010-Definition-Camcorder-Optical/dp/B001AO10YU) which is $300 off lol.

The only stuff that it doesn't have that I want is stuff you aren't going to get for less then $2,000. Like XLR ports with phantom power, 3ccp, 24p, etc.

Only down side I have found is i won't let you manually change the focus while recording. You have to set then shoot. If I want to have the focus change I have to depend on the auto focus.
 
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