Help finding a good Camcorder

[hsj2011]

I'm looking for a budget camcorder to use for a couple of important occasions this year and I've been looking at a well known catalogue store and they have a Hitachi C20 HD Camcorder for £169 and I was wondering if anyone could advise me as to whether this was any good or not as I don't seem to be able to find any reviews.

My initial budget was £200 max but I'm now wondering whether I should extend my budget a bit and go for something like a Canon HF M306 or a second hand HF100.

Can anyone offer me any advice?

 

[Outcass]

I just bought a Canon Vixia HF R10. It works pretty good with iMovie. You should be able to find it for under $300.

 

[dodge this]

What kind of features do you need in a camera?

 

[Soura2112]

Also in the market

I'm also in the market for a new camcorder.
My budget is $1,000 before tax. I have been looking at the new Sony 560v, which is about 1,000 depending on the store. 5.1 and seems to have good low light ability with good golf and sport video. Which is what I film, so it sounds good on paper.
Looking for these other options:
1080p
Internal and external flash cards (if I need to add more cards).
Most important FCP use and iMovie would be nice for quick stuff.
Optional light adapter
Speed shooting, like I said good for sports, hockey and football also.
Good battery life.

I know I'm leaving out a few things...

Can anyone outside of consumer reports tell me if 5.1 on these priced cameras actually work well? In the past all my consumer cameras were simply 2 channel, always loved 5.1 from my laser disc days so it would be great if it actually worked well.

Thanks for any info.