For that price you might want to look into picking up a Canon HV20. A used one should cost about that or you might luck into a sale. It's a great little camera for the price and it can record in high definition. Look into a mic for it though, the onboard audio is crap.
a bit belated... but many thanks, Glen. We checked the HV20 out and decided to spend the extra $ to upgrade to the HF10. I've been playing with it for the last few days. If you can spring for the external mic, it's excellent.