I'd look at either the
Canon HV40 for HDV tape based recording or the
Canon HF11 for flash memory recording. They are both above your price range, but anything below is generally pretty crappy (ie all the Flip, Kodak, and portable cameras). You can get in the sub $300 range easily, but you are only looking at standard defintion video, which nowadays is lame being YouTube supports 1080p now. The HV40 (HV20/30/40) has a
huge community around it, and so do the flash based Canons. So if you want to know how to use them to their full extent, you have a wealth of information available. Either camera can shoot stunning video with a decent amount of manual control. As Chez said, it all depends on what you want to do with your camera.
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