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?
You could consider a point and shoot camera from the big names. I imagine something like this might fit the bill. You would have to check out some reviews as I’m not familiar with the non mirrorless interchangable lense cameras.
https://www.nikonusa.com/en/nikon-products/product/compact-digital-cameras/coolpix-b600.html
Technically that camera isn’t 4k but I would expect the quality would be better at 1080p than most phones at 4k since the phones have such a tiny sensor to work with.