Bill. The ZR800 is $199.99 at Amazon, that was my deciding factor.
Steven. Right now I'm going for a brand new camera.
Thanks everybody.

Joshua,

would love to hear your review once you get it. I have a specific need here and after reading some reviews not sure if the ZR800 will do the job.

the mic input is a great feature (and one that shoudl be on every camcorder) but the poor low light ability and more importantly the purported motor noise interfering with the onboard mic pick up might kill it for me.

I need to get a few "foolproof" camcorders for some of our officers to tape scenarios. simply put, officers approach a home, interact with the occupants, deal with various sitiations like low light, noise (boombox etc) and its taped. It is later reviewed looking at it from various perspectives on how they dealt with the public and how they dealt with safety concerns. (these occupants are not the upper crust of society if you get my drift.)

So, they will need decent low light performance(granted at this pricepoint that is only going to be "so good") and be able to pick up the audio. If their dealings with the occupants are drown out by motor noise, well its a waste of time.

I think I need to get my hands on some of these things and see how they perform. Look forward to your review

As soon as I purchase one of these it is going straight into filming a short, so I will put it through its paces. The review I can't guerantee till December or January because I am not sure when I am finally getting one. Motor noise is definitly bad. Low-light capability was not one of my requirments, but I will check it out, as some of our locations are very dark or filmed at night. Onboard mic i am never to thrilled with on any camcorder, but the Sony DCR-HC28 Handycam had a semi-decent one, and decent to good low-light. Reason I am going with the Canon is the shutter speed and the widescreen options, and a decent picture.