What do you hope to do with the videos you take? What types of things will you be video taping?
I would avoid anything that's still using a tape to record. Most people want to take short videos that they can easily share with family and friends, usually online. Getting a taped video uploaded to your computer takes A LONG TIME! And is very large in size when you do. That's another thing to keep in mind. If you think you're going to take lots of "keeper" videos, be prepared to have a good storage/backup system so you don't chew up all your computer's drive space, which will adversely effect you computer's performance.
I think by staying with your Canon, Sony, JVC, and brands like them, you're likely to get something quite useful. I think that setting a price point is likely a good place to start.
With that said, we purchased a Flip camera last year and I love it. For the very little video recording we do, it serves our purposes very nicely. It's really easy to get the video from the camera to your computer.
