Video camera

[Craig Warren]

I'm looking for a camcorder small enough to take with me while hunting (so I will actually take it with me) but good enough for early morning and late afternoon light. Does it exist for under $800? Brand? Modle? I've been looking at the Sony HDR-XR200V. Is 15X optical zoom enough?

Any help/suggestions will be much appreciated.

Thanks, Craig

[Broken Arrow 1]

I have a Panasonic SDR-H80 with 70X optical zoom. It works pretty well. Low light conditions are always tricky to film in but this camera (in my opinion) does pretty well. I'm not exactly sure of the price but I think it is around $500.00

[Terry Green]

A friend of mine bought a few for his camp at around $250 a piece....Sony...runs on a card/hard drive and has an incredible zoom.  I do not know the model.  Not very big either.

You can also get the DVD converter and you just plug it into the camera and it burns the video from the card/hard drive straight to the DVD.

I'll see if I can get the model number when I am down there next week.

[Craig Warren]

Broken Arrow 1.  I've been looking at the Panasonic too.  Looks really good for the price but I was warned about low light capabilities.  I'll have to dig a little deeper into it.  Thanks

Terry,  Thanks.  This is what I am looking for...hands-on experience.  You never know what to think of what the sales person at the shop has to say, especially if they don't get out there before the sun comes up and stay until it goes down like we do.

[Terry Green]

I'll definately let you know...cause I'm gonna get one as well....just ran off and forgot the last evening I was there.  I'll be back down Wed and Thursday of next week...and I'll let ya know.

I'll even try and call ya from there Tuesday evening or wed lunch.

[Craig Warren]

Thanks Terry.  Are you deer or hog hunting?  Good luck.

[Tim Fishell]

This is one that I have and was pretty impressed with it while I was in Wyoming in September.  

  http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10551&storeId=10151&langId=-1&productId=8198552921665738347

This might be pretty similar to what Terry is talking about.

[Craig Warren]

Thanks Tim.  Looks a lot like the one I'm looking at but the one I'm looking at is HD so I guess that's why it's up there in price, and then I wonder if it is worth the difference in price to get the HD.  The Sony HDR-XR200V has a 120 GB HDD plus a memory slot and GPS tagging capability.  Useful or not??  Maybe Herdbull will get in here with some advice too.

[mdel747]

i run Sony tvr340 i think it is , for taking out to the Fields  , it dose fairly well over all  until you get to  the last 10 min of light or dusk , unless your close ,
 i tape mostly in Aug  when the bucks are batcher'd up , what you want to look for is the optical zoom  as the digital  in low light will peculate out way to much ,  so what ever you pick up get close and stay out of the digital zoom  and you will end up with better video ,
 and a tripod is a must ,
 you can also gain a few min of tape  by manualy  adjusting the white balance  up as  the light go's down and switching to manual focus