Is HG20 a good starter HD cam?

I have a Sony camcorder now that records to mini dvd. Camera is good, but i hate that i go thru 60 minutes of tape so fast and that fact that it records to a format that I need to convert and then upload. Its such a pita to do and time consuming. btw, camera was bought second hand with no software.

Im looking at a new Canon HD, HG20 is what i've narrowed it down to. I'de be going thru b&h if i pull the trigger and getting an extra battery, charger, hdmi cable and bag.

There weren't many reviews on here about it so im hoping some people here can help me out. Are there any real problems/cons with this camera? How is the sound pic up? My camera now will getting some rattling/buzzing with really high pitched sounds. I do alot of railfanning and train horns get buzzed out no matter what I do.

any feedback would be appreciated.

I have the HF 100.
I would not buy a hard drive based camcorder. Hard drives are the most likely to fail. They use up more battery. they are much more shock sensitive, you are a lot more likely to get lazy and not download stuff, and loose everything when it fails. I have an HF100. it produced compressed HD format (AVCHD) which has become the standard for camcorders. 16gb card gives me 2 hours of HD recording. before that I need to change the battery anyway, so its inconsequential. besides its very easy to change a card.
I can take pop the card out, but it in any computer and transfer the files over, or watch it immediately on a computer screen.
good luck with your purchase.

you can shoot directly to the sd card on the hg20, don't even use the hdd.

if you don't like the onboard mic, you can always plug another one in... these canons all have manual audio controls.