So as you all know I suck balls at animation and shouldn't even have front page post rights but I make somewhat decent movies. My JVC mini dv camcorder I use for my personal films has served me well, but I need an upgrade to get up to the new standards of HD, along with a few other bells and whistles I need when I go to university for filmmaking.

I've done a lot of research and came across the Canon Vixia HFS20 because it fits all the criteria I wanted, but I haven't got my hands on it yet at a store.

So what Im wondering is does anyone own a Canon Vixa HFS 20, 200, or 21? And if so what do you think of it?

Or can you recommend another camera that has the following criteria

Around the $1000CDN dollar mark (no more than $1500)
CMOS sensor
Manual control over focus, exposure, shutter speed, etc, (preferably easily accessible on a knob or something)
A microphone jack for an external microphone
24p or some sort of cinema mode would be nice, but not nessicairy.

It's too dangerous to go alone. Take this.