Digital video cameras??

[HeadlessNorseman]

So, my expensive waterproof camera ended up getting stepped on, and said person offered to buy me a new camera. Ive wanted a digital video camera for sometime now, because thats mostly what i did with the photo camera anyways. So im just looking on input for some positives and negatives of brands and options, looking in the 300-400$ range. Are the cheaper internal hard drive models any good? or the ones that take mini DVDs? ive never owned a video camera so some help would be appreciated. And what am i looking out for features wise? Im also looking for something with a mic input...not sure if thats a pretty standard feature or not. Thanks everyone!

[Knipps]

I'm sure this translates to video cameras as well as regular cameras so avoid DIGITAL zoom. Optical Zoom is what really counts.

[Whiplash Performance]

I'm sure this translates to video cameras as well as regular cameras so avoid DIGITAL zoom. Optical Zoom is what really counts.

+1 digital zoom sucks. Get a camera with the SDHC card in it. It makes life pretty easy to upload your videos to the computer and they are also pretty cheap in price.

[btownws6]

don't buy the dvd ones b/c it takes forever to burn i have a jvc everio 60 gb which is awesome and works beautifully it just plugs right into the comp. and uploads in like 2 mins and goes directly to you tube if you want it to i highly recommend it. it also has a slot for the sdhc card if you need more storage then the 60 gigs it comes with lol