About ten years ago, I bought a little JVC miniDV machine, pretty much on spur of moment, about £150 or so iirc.
I subsequently got a bit 'into it', invested another £few in editing software, and began producing home movies of various family trips. With a little bit of effort both at shooting and editing, the results far exceeded expectations and I found myself being 'booked' as official videographer for formal family events, including a military reunion, three golden weddings and an actual wedding!
All of above, with same little cheapie camera. I would assume modern technology is even better so, based on my experience, don't be afraid of low price tags.
Probably stating the obvious, but ignore any mention of digital zooms, and get one with a decent optical zoom, mine was 28x I think.
Edit - corrected "DVI" to "Mini DV". Probably obsolete now, that was a small tape cartridge, very much like a miniature VHS cassette. May be wrong, but I would imagine modern technologies to be mechanically simpler, hence cheaper.