For the price I paid, this camera is a great value. It's not true Hi-Def, but the quality is amazing. Better than my GL2, and fits in the same case I used to carry my digital snapshot camera in.
There are better cameras out there, but how many of them can you fit in your pocket? My GL2 is in the back of my closet. My HD-1A is in my glove box, on stand-bye, ready to shoot in three seconds. Which do you think will get more use?
Battery life is right around 40 minutes, so get extras. One 4gb SDHC card will hold several hours of video and an infinite amount of high resolution stills. So maybe two memory cards and and 3-4 batteries, and you're ready for anything.
Sound quality is better than expected, but not great. Luckily, there's a jack for an external microphone.
This is a referb, and the box showed it, but all of the accessories were included, and factory fresh.
This camera is the best electronics purchase I've made in years.