Hello

Over the past few months I have been testing and researching some camcorders to replace my old PD170s and Z1u for tapeless HD footage. I have been trying to get comfortable with consumer camcorders but it is not working for me. The video quality seems to be good enough, but the lack of physical controls and audio are just not working for me. I have a $1500-2000 budget and would like to get a tapeless camera with sufficient manual controls without having to go through too many menus and audio controls without having to use an external adapter.

I have rented a CANON XA10 and was surprised by the quality but the manual controls were more fiddily than useful. The XA10 was the only of the 3 that was available for rent/purchase locally, however there is an HMC40 available for rental locally I could try.

I have not used or seen either the PANASONIC HMC80 or JVC HM100u in person and they are not available to see locally. How do these compare in picture quality and usability?

Also are these cameras good enough or would it be better to stay with HDV tape a little while longer and buy a used HDV camera instead of these.

Sorry for so many questions but at my budget of $1500-2000 just want to be sure I get the best camera for my use. I have tried the higher-end palmcorder cameras but just can't get used to them, although some of them have excellent picture.

Thanks
Mark