I just bought a Canan HG10 from Amazon (GSM-Fonz) for €495 inc shipping. Its a High Definition unit with a 40GB hard drive. Haven't tried it out yet but it has excellent reviews online and on youtube.
I could have paid about €800 for the same camera here, but why would you. Equivalent Sony units are nearly twice the price and the Canon has got just as good a review on it.
The downside of the HF100 is that if you plan to use it for long periods, you'll need to stock up on SD cards, which aren't cheap anyway and as its High Def it will eat them up fast. The camera will be lighter than the HD model but its only 500g anyway