I just did the same search and I came up with the Canon ZR60 (a miniDV camcorder). I got mine for $405 shipped from [url]www.buydig.com[/url] with no sales tax (I'm in California too).
I've only had it a couple weeks and haven't done much filming yet, but it seems easy to use and compact. It's got a firewire connection and also AV to DV pass through (you can run an old analog camcorder through it and then onto your computer for editing). Pretty good optical zoom (18X) too.
I checked some of the reviews on cnet.com, and people complained that it doesn't work well in low light and also there were some noise issues (some people said it records a mechanical noise that's kind of irritating). I figured that even if these were problems, they could probably be fixed with an external light or microphone, and I would still be paying less if I had to do this than I would be for a comparable Sony camcorder.
A buddy of mine has a Sony Digital8 camcorder and it's outstanding, but I wanted to go miniDV, and I think the ZR60 is a good starter camcorder at a decent price.
Hope this helps,
Ed