>>>and I can get for aprox $1050<<<

Which in Denmark is probably less than $720 in the US.

Dollar has declined so much it's practically worthless outside of US.

I bought the HV10 just about a year ago for about $900 from Abe's of Maine.
I use it constantly and keep the Sony A1 at home except for "special" or 2-cam shoots...
It fits in my pocket, fanny pack, around my neck jammed down a life vest when in my kayak...
The fact it shoots great looking video and doesn't cost a fortune to replace if it gets stolen, broken, or drowned makes me willing to take it out and just play and experiment more often as I have it in my car at all times.
I DO wish it had the mic and head inputs of the HV20 and a gain input control would be terrific,
But at such a nice low price / per quality, these small but sweet HDV cams become accessible to those of us not making our livelihood from our video, but get to indulge our creativity like never before with these new tools....
Today.....!

Eileen.

...and the HV10 is $499 now with the store paying the sales tax (per Bel Air Camera's ad in Los Angeles Times, so probably at many other stores elsewhere).

I just looked for the ad (HV10) and on the website its listing @ $979....

I like the $499 much better if its available...maybe that was a One-day sale?

B&H has the HV20 for only a little more plus a $150 gift card. I'd buy from B&H over Zipzoomfly in a fraction of a hearbeat. Just a word to the wise.

I've never had any problems with my ZipZoomFly orders. I'd rather buy from Newegg, but I never had any problems with them.

The Bel Air Camera deal was not a one-day sale.

Amazon sells the HV20 for $751.99 with free shipping, and Amazon Marketplace has it for $729.90.

They sell the HV10 for $569.99 with free shipping, with Amazon Marketplace offering it for $555.00.

Dollar has declined so much it's practically worthless outside of US.

Having even the government live on credit cards has turned out to be risky. If we get a depression coming, the Federal Reserve will want to reduce interest rates (a Fed hint to do that raised the Dow 300 points yesterday). But if they do that, the dollar drops even more.

The increase in oil prices is really not so much an increase in the oil as a decrease in the value of the dollar that the oil producing countries get paid in. If the dollar doesn't buy them as much as before, the have to ask for more just to stay even.

(Although senior oil analysts have attributed $20 of the current oil price increase to Cheney's current threats to assault Iran, as the additional cost of an increased supply risk.)

It has also been widely thought that the reason we went after Saddam Hussein was not "to get his oil," but that he was a threat to U.S. interests because he had begun to advocate pricing oil in euros instead of dollars.

This would automatically increase our oil prices as the dollar sinks further and further as our debt load increases steadily with no willingness to pay it off.

It seems the cat is out of the bag though: at the recent OPEC meeting, all member countries except Saudi Arabia were pushing for a switch from dollars to euros or a basket of currencies.

They are really concerned about current U.S. fiscal policies and what it means for their oil income. At least they shouldn't have to worry about all getting assaulted, because the U.S. military is quite overextended already, and no further invasions can be done without a general draft.

Lets be real, politics aside, oil options are being brought up by India, China and Russia in a major way. China has been very successful in buying oil land leases, oil rights in general in Asian area for the last 10 years, limiting the market for India and a few others needs for cheap oil for industrial growth. With the increase demand for plastics in these communities, the demand for oil has increased dynamically as well for chemical production process besides fuel demands. Russia has been very successful tieing up the EU market in just a few years, it should be interesting to see Russia - China work out the who's the Big Dog in the World Energy market the next three to five years.

Oh by the way, Thanks Coursedesign for the heads-up about the HV20 pricing! I was thinking about recommending the Canon to my sister( who travels way too much and has too much fun doing it) and my dad( who sets the example!) for its simple easy to use and small size.

Exchange rates are a good news/bad news kind of thing.

Bad: When I traveled to France last summer, everything cost more than it did back in 2001. Imported oil also costs more.

Good: American industry can sell goods to the world cheaper than the EU. The Airbus people are panicking right now because Boeing is eating their lunch.

Where is the perfect exchange rate? I have no idea.

Anyone know what the new Canon camera will be like?

Canon is keeping a very tight wrap on the HV20 successor, haven't heard specifics yet.

Exchange rates for most countries are mostly about being competitive with other countries.

For the U.S., there are much bigger consequences. There isn't much manufacturing left here (and Boeing has already moved some assembly to China and other Asian countries), but the concern isn't even that imported goods are becoming more expensive.

The major concern today is that a few other countries hold massive amounts of dollar debt, about a trillion dollars. If they feel that they are on a sinking ship, they will do what we would do in a heartbeat: abandon that ship and exchange their dollar paper for euro debt or a basket of other currencies.

If that happens, the U.S. government won't be able to continue borrowing money abroad to create the illusion of a balanced budget, our taxes will go up very quickly, and interest rates will have to be pumped up to make up for the massive inflation.

>>>and I can get for aprox $1050<<<

Which in Denmark is probably less than $720 in the US.
Dollar has declined so much it's practically worthless outside of US.
=====================================================
I had a good laugh when I read this one. It is a prime example of how wrong things can go in a thought process :-)

Outside of the US, measured in US dollars, US $1 is, has always been, and will in fact always be, worth exactly US $1. How it fluctuates against other currencies is another matter, but, measured in dollars, as the Dane is doing above, a dollar is always a dollar.

Not necessarily.

He may have been thinking of the McDonald's index, which measures how many minutes people in different countries have to work to be able to put their teeth into a Big Mac.

The minimum wage in Denmark is way higher than the minimum wage in the U.S., so for many Danes it's less strain to buy a US$1050 check than it is for an American in an equivalent position to cough up $720.

>>>>>Not necessarily.<<<<<

Yes, necessarily. If someone says to you, "That thing costs $1000 in my country", and his country is not using $s as currency, you can safely assume that he has done the conversion for you at that point in time. So, lets say, for arguments sake, that he is talking about a Danish Crown, (DKR) which currently is about 5:1 on the USD, you can safely assume that what he is saying is that the thing he is talking about kosts DKR 5000 or so. In other words, $1000.

Now, if the USD drops against the DKR, lets say, tragically, to 2.5:1, then he would say "That thing kosts $500 in my country" if the price of the item remains unchanged.

>>>for many Danes it's less strain to buy a US$1050 check than it is for an American in an equivalent position to cough up $720<<<

That is clearly and evidently so, but it doesn't change the fact that once he has done the conversion for you, as was the case here, the price is, in real currency, 1:1. Also, if the $ drops further, one out of two things may happen, the item gets cheaper in his country, since the Danish dealer deals with the original supplier in USD. More likely however is it that the price in Denmark stays the same, since that is what the Danish market is willing to pay for the item, and the dealer makes more money (in USD) off it.