Camcorders
SONY was and is still the leader in making the best camcorders available in the market today. The Digital 8 camcorders themselves used to be highly priced,around $800-$900 not far from today but now you get the DVD camcorders for anywhere between $400-$600. You still have camcorders priced above that but it is upto you to decide what you want to buy, based on how much of it you will use.
Here are the details of the available Camcorders. I prefer SONY, so will list a few and then may be refer you to someother place for other brands.