A few years ago, I picked up a Canon Vixia HF R800 HD camcorder used off eBay for $200. I was tired of filling up my phone with long-form video recordings (family weddings, etc), and I liked having the large optical zoom.
I was thinking of upgrading this year to 4k, and it seems that everything is either $150 scamware off Temu or at least $1k jobs from Canon or Sony.
Obviously I expect a price hike for 4k, but is it that much more expensive to make a 4k camcorder? Five years later, and they’re still 5x more expensive than 1080p?
Not particularly cheap but the DJI osmo pocket 3 ($520) is probably the best 4k video quality in a compact camera. The only downside is, no/limited zoom. It’s not going to be as versatile in that sense compared to your camcorder, but with good quality 4k you can always zoom in in post.
I know the camera looks weird, but I think it really is the modern camcorder. It’s super stabilized with the built in gimbal, uses a nice 1 in sensor, has some depth of field when you want it, and is mostly a point and shoot experience when you want it. It beats anything else in its price class, at least.