I know this has been brought up in the past, but I'm looking to spend about 500$. I will spend slightly more if necessary.
For under 500$ you're probably looking at a small camcorder, Canon vixia or a small Panasonic or something. I'm using a t5i right now the t3i is 500bucks with a kit lens refurbished Sent from my ASUS PadFone X using Tapatalk
Cannot go wrong with a vixia. That'll leave you some extra cash for a good fluid head maybe a few ultra pro X cameras (under 100 just as good as gopro)
I have a Panasonic hdc-hs900 with a cheaper shot gun mic, and two of the pine ridge camera arms, as well as other extras I would sell for $600 if you'd be interested in it.