Well I didn't spend that much, but I just bought one and I will toss out my 2 cents. I was looking to film wildlife and long Range hunts. So optical zoom was important to me. I bought the Sony DCR-SX41. It has 60X optical and 2000 X digital zoom. It is very small and easy to carry. But, it is so small I can hardly use the buttons with one hand. My thumb will not bend tight enough to push the record button. I can deal with this but the real kicker is it does not have a sight glass to view through, only the screen view. Outside forget it, I cant see crap on the screen, even in the woods. So I plan to buy another and for sure the next WILL have a sight glass view finder.
For what its worth..
Jeff