I have the Sony HDV HVR-V1 and I seriously love it, I have tried the other Sony cams and image quality is the best, it was the first that came out with 3 CMOS and progressive scan, there's a pretty sweet deal in Amazon for it
here
The new sony cams are getting great reviews and the possibility to change lenses and use flash media is really great, however I haven't tried or even found prices for them.