I got a refurbished one for £400 the other day at Canon's shop on eBay http://stores.ebay.co.uk/Canon-Outlet Good as new. You may have to wait until one becomes available.
You can use cheap MiniDV tapes (£12 for 6 TDK at Waitrose!) for recording HDV. The difference between DV and HDV is in the data compression, otherwise they're identical. So don't believe the hype. And stick with the same tape manufacturer - they sometimes use different lubricants which should not me mixed or your heads might clog.