I got a Sony HDR-XR260v, has worked very well for the most part and it can use it with my macbook. I think it cost me 600$ but the hd looks great on big tv's, the only thing i don't like is i their is no manual focus. i can do some spot focusing on it but its not the same.
Now if i can figure out how to compress 1080p so i can burn it onto a dvd id be set, my first video was 35mins and 29 gigs!!! I was told by a few guys on here that film to shoot everything in hd, because you never know if you'll get that once in a life time shot. Hd footage has so far been a pain for me though because the files are enormous