A few years ago, I picked up a Canon Vixia HF R800 HD camcorder used off eBay for $200. I was tired of filling up my phone with long-form video recordings (family weddings, etc), and I liked having the large optical zoom.
I was thinking of upgrading this year to 4k, and it seems that everything is either $150 scamware off Temu or at least $1k jobs from Canon or Sony.
Obviously I expect a price hike for 4k, but is it that much more expensive to make a 4k camcorder? Five years later, and they’re still 5x more expensive than 1080p?
Adding onto this, I think the fact that digital still cameras also shoot video now contributed to the market for consumer camcorders disappearing. Again, why spend that money on a separate device if something you already have does a pretty good job?