Most HD recorders are way out of your price range for a few hundred dollars.
HD is what you would expect in this day an age if you want crisp clean and hig def content.
HD allows you to deploy excellent effects processing as well. Colour correction, Keying and Rotorscoping etc..
The first generation like JVC's Everio GZ-HD7 stil does not real HD but interpolates it still.
That camera is about $1799 U.S.
Sony has the HDR-FX1 which is there introduction to consumer HD but I bet it hangs around the $3500 US mark.
The best thing you can do in SD is to look at the cameras formats.
If the camera takes the shot in a compressed format like mpeg4 etc. and stores it on a hard drive or removable media your not going to get results. Compressed formats are hopeless for quality.
If it stores it on Digital tape and you dump it in from that source to your computer using firewire 400/800 or usb 2.0 and uncompressed codecs you will get a much better result.
this process chews up hard drive space like you wouldn't believe.
Look at some brands you trust, read the reviews on the last 3 cam corders they have released and choose from there.
A few hundred dollars though is just not ample for a good result however.
