Video camera?

[jonsimoneau]

For those of you using video cameras in the outdoors, what one do you like?  I am looking into buying one.  I will use it somewhat to video hunts, but mostly to video bucks that I pass up, as well as big mid-western bucks feeding in bean fields in the summer.  I am looking for something that has alot of zoom as well as good low light capabilities.  Any advice would be appreciated.

[Oldruffedhunter]

How much are you wanting to spend? There are a lot of good cameras out there but are you wanting a minidv or one that uses memory cards. Sony has a new one out that I'm looking at they are around $3000.00 it has 20X zoom. Also how big of a camera are you wanting. There are so many out there I'm just trying to narrow down your search. Brian

[Mint]

check out a used Canon GL2

[OS]

if you are just looking for personal use I puchased a Mini DV at a pawn shot for under $100 and it works great

[Chris Shelton]

How serious are you?  This is questionably the most important thought.  If you are serious about getting into the outdoor filming industry you will probably spent close to 3000 dollars, and those cameras don't have that much zoom, like said above 20x seems to be standard for the new HD ENG cameras.  Anything that is going on TV almost always needs to be shot with a camera with 3 CCD chips.  The GL2 has them.  I have heard nothing but good about the GL2, except its inability to shoot widescreen.  Personally as far as ENG cameras go I am smitten for the XH-A1's they are a expensive piece, but in today's industry HD is almost certainly going to be a must.  Nothing is written in gold but it looks like that is the one I am going to buy.  

On a different note if you are just planning on keeping the videos for yourself, and possibly putting them on the internet or something you don't need to spend 3000 bucks on a camera.  I currently have a cheap point and shoot, Samsung SC-MX20, it is standard def which allows you to find them with a low price the very next model of this camera is high def and it is almost tripled in price.  I really love this camera!  For a point and shoot it is great, the only problems I have with it are as follows:

-  really the main problem I have is that I hardly ever use auto anything anymore and a point and shoot camera is not easy to adjust manually like a ENG which you basically have to adjust manually.  
-  That same problem goes with auto exposure, auto shutter speed, and auto setting.  

  With that said if you are not planning on using manual options this camera is perfect

Another problem is the lack of size, this causes two problems.  And this is probably a problem with a lot of point and shoots.  Smaller cameras are harder to keep balanced when telephoto.  So a tripod is a must for almost everything past 15X zoom.  Another problem is a small lens, that also means a small aperture.  With that small aperture the lowest f-stop I can go to is something like f3.5?  That is not much light, the standard for wedding photographers is 2.8 and they are just inside!  

Also the lowest my night-shot goes is 15fps, so low light is definitely a problem, I cant do anything in the dark.

My camera is sweet but just to be the devils advocate Sony is famous for their night-shot!  I believe they shoot infrared, so I would imagine that their shutter speed goes way down there, but I don't know for sure.

Anyway hope this short novel helps ya!  Good luck