Mark, I don't know which use you have to do with a camcorder but XLR inputs are very important for a lot of events (that need a professional camcorder and professional mics) such as theatre, interviews, fashion events and many more....
Be careful with the standard HDV, It records at 4:2:0 with a MPEG2 - Long GOP compression, so If you record a very moving object with a lot of details, some frames will be converted in a wrong way, because it makes an inter-frame (and not INTRA-frame) conversion...You will see the squares...
I think that HD camcorder maret is a market that begins from down, so I think we have to wait two or three years to buying the best HD prosumer camcorder( I think it's panasonic HVX 200).
Ciao
