My situation:

Used to run a video marketing business in Europe and equipped myself with the Panasonic HMC150 & HMC170. Both wonderful camera with different characters, but always great results.

Now I have moved to Canada and am working as Director of Marketing for a technology company. Part of my remit will be the production of in-house video. They already have a good setup as they do a lot of photography, so have good lighting, tripods etc.

However, the only camera they have is a P.Sonic HDC-SD5PP, which is good for home use, but not going to cut it for the kind of corporate videos we want to do (a lot of them will be cookery demo videos).

I'm looking for something more suitable, that is solid and will allow me to plug an external mic in through XLR. Also looking for solid state, as I'll be editing on FCP on a Macbook Pro, and I've worked with SD cards for so long I quite literally cannot look back to tape!

Sadly, the HMC70 & 150 are out of their price range, so I am looking for something cheaper here in Canada.

Can anyone make a suggestion?

NEED:
. Solid camera
. XLR input
. Good price (cheaper than HMC70)
. Solid state

DON'T CARE ABOUT:
. Size
. Weight
. Manufacturer

May consider a used model if someone trustworthy is offering!

James -- I can't think of any cameras in that price range with XLR audio jacks and the features you're looking for. You could go for something along the lines of a Sony HXR-MC50U ("pro" version of cx550) or one of the better consumer Canons like a Vixia HFS21. Very nice features on these little camcorders, even some manual controls, built-in memory + stick a card in them as well. There are a couple sites here in Canada that are worth looking at if you haven't seen them. dvshop.ca (Toronto) and vistek.com. Not an endorsement, I haven't done biz with either of them but they do have listings of cameras & Canadian prices. One thing to keep in mind if you're new to Canada is that it is very tempting to order gear from the USA as the prices are better. Just be aware that the warranty may not be valid in Canada.

Should also check out the "Gigantic Which Camera Should I Buy" thread (sticky) at the top of this forum.