I have a panasonic PVGS-59 that I have been using for two seasons now. I have recorded moose, antelope, mule deer, and ground squirrel hunts with it so far. I does pretty well in low light and has a 30x optical zoom. It picks up the con trail (when environmental conditions allow the con trail to be seen). I have video with visible con trail on squirrels and my mule deer @ 353 yds. It also has image stabilization features and takes overall very good quality video. Mine also came with software that allows me to downloads the video to my PC, cut it into clips, add music, graphics, etc., and then make DVD's. I think the GS-59 has been upgraded, as the new ones have 42x optical zoom. The only thing with the high end zooming, you need a very good quality tripod to stabilize the camera (I use a manfrotto tripod and manfrotto "pistol grip" head), especially for squirrel hunting footage (if you want to be able to see the 'splat'). Also, my camera records on mini DV (digital cassettes), I haven't used the cameras that burn directly to a mini disk. I did quite a bit of reading before I bought mine (Sept. 06) and at the time Panasonic was at the top of the heap in quality and reliability. Good luck, and trust me, everybody loves the ground squirrel hunting footage!
and the thing about the praire dog hunt well let's just say that I'm a sick person I guess. Later,
