Advice for camcorder shopping
I'm an amateur movie maker on the looks for an inexpensive solution to my camera needs. I'll primarily make music videos with my friends and we take a lot of time with them and do a lot of planning and so on. Our current camera just plain sucks and I would like to upgrade the image quality and get some focus/zoom controls. Other manual controls would be nice, but I don't think they are necessary. I do not need a good mic on the camera as I don't usually need a mic, and if I do need one I would use my computer. I am looking in the $500 range, and it seems that the cameras I have found fit that range.
I've looked around a little and I see that Canon ranks high in the camera market right now.
Canon ZR85
Canon ZR90
^ Differences? I didn't really find any. The 85 is priced higher than the 90, however. Any reasoning behind this?
Canon XL1S
^ The top dog of an amateur film producer's needs I hear. I could probably afford this camera, but would the other cameras I listed do near the same job, but without manual controls?
Any other suggestions?