I thought so too... :) (If only a little desperate sounding :p

If you have an older miniDV camcorder or a Sony Digital 8 it will be of higher quality because of the larger imager (likely a 1/4 CCD). Sometimes people "upgrade" to a newer HD cam thinking they will be getting something better only to find that they just bought a bells and whistle inept camera with a 1/5 or 1/6 CCD.

If you can get one of those you can create 4:3 videos in a 16:9 frame of fairly high quality. Just don't stretch the video to fit the widescreen frame. Leave the black bars.
With relatively inexpensive software such as Ulead DVD Movie Factory 6 plus you can encode at 15 - 25 Mbps on a DVD-R giving you higher quality DVDs that can be played in an HD DVD player (which aren't very expensive - $130). Those also upconvert SD DVDs that should be of higher quality due to original footage being shot with an older and better imager.

John

Thanks for the response John. Yes I do have a JVC miniDV GRDX77U that's several years old. I'd like to upgrade to a higher resolution camcorder to help me craft sharper and better educational materials (dance), among other things, for a non-profit dance group that I belong to. So I can zoom in and such during editing. And I'm thinking there must be a glut of hidef camcorders out there and someone may not need theirs. As they say, 'nothing ventured nothing gained,' :) so I'm asking... Thanks again.

Do you mean for free?

That's not gonna happen, and that's coming from someone who gives away a lot of stuff.

If you want a JVC GR-HD1 for really cheap, that's another story.

I know, it's kinda naive. But I had to ask...

I got my eye on an old jeep cj series,, mfs if you happen to have one maybe can do a trade for a z1, or if you dont need it you can just give it to me

Thanks for the response John. Yes I do have a JVC miniDV GRDX77U that's several years old.
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That's not really old enough. It has a 1/6 CCD so the quality will be low especially for dance as will most new affordable HD cameras for the same reason. I would not save up to buy an inferior new [i]affordable[i/] modern camera if I were you. It will be a big disappointment.
I would be looking into a used one and forget the Hi-Def. For dance, if you could find a used Sony VX2000 you would be set. Great in low light and sharp as a tack. Otherwise see if someone is looking to get rid of an older Sony Digital 8 to "upgrade". The older the better. Maybe a DCR-TRV510. A TRV-38 or 39 in MIniDV isn't bad either. Both have 1/4 CCD.

John

I was into CJs for a time. Had a wonderful USArmy CJ5 with less that 30,000 miles on it. I sold it for about the cost of two Z1s.

Thanks John - that's an eye opener: older doesn't necessarily mean it's worse than newer ones. hmm.. Thanks for the camcorder suggestions.