Suggest a good camcorder

[Boot]

I am needing a good camcorder for general use. My first thought when I started looking was to get a dvd cam, but now I find out that the dvds are all mini, and they can only hold 30 minutes max? WTF?

So I am totally open to any format, including a camcorder with a hard drive. My only concern about that is that my computer is pretty old, and I cannot afford to update it right now, so I'm not sure about transfering video.

Can somebody give me some insight? I'm looking at the $500 range or below. Thanks!

[Boot]

I found a great beginner's guide at http://www.camcorderinfo.com/content/beginers-camcorder-buying-guide.htm . I'm thinking MiniDV might be my best bet, but I'm not sure. I like the editing capabilities of the MiniDVD, but the short recording time is a huge negative.

Maybe some of you can tell me your experiences with different formats and suggest a few models for me to check out. That will at least give me a starting point in my research.