better than entry level

I recently purchased the HC38 for my husband's birthday, and we couldn't be happier with out purchase. It is a very intuitive camcorder. We picked it up and started recording with no instructions, (although we did read them later!) I had researched my purchase thoroughly, but was still a bit confused due to all the quality products on my short list, When I arrived at Circuit City, their staff in the camera department here in Albuquerque knew so much about the cameras they sold that I was able to make up my mind quickly. I had a list of criteria and they were able to narrow my options down quite well. We have had no problems at all with our choice. My husband is really jazzed about the night time infrared capabilities, and has been able to record night blooming flowers opening and nocturnal insects in the back yard.
It was not billed as being mac friendly and only came with windoze software, but it was able to hook up to our Mac quite easily with a separately purchased USB cord. Once hooked up, the software that comes with a mac knew the camera was there and picked up the camera's images and loaded them right into iMovie.
I would not say that the 40X zoom is a big plus, unless you are filming with a tripod. It is too sensitive to hold and film by hand. We did mount it and were able to film hummingbirds though, and it worked great with the tripod.
The Sony was picked over the others because it was said that it works better in low light, and we have found this to be true when we compare it to what we have see on other people's camcorders.