are you lookin to do pro video or just really good home video? If you're lookin for awesome home video, Look into getting an affordable tree arm, something like the hunter cam cradle or muddy and buy a canon hv30 or sony hc9. These cameras are freakin awesome. Get the sony and add a lanc zoom controller and you'll have manual zoom and focus control at your thumb. These are 1080 HD cams and take great video, stabilize it and use manual focus and you'll be hard pressed to tell the difference in most of the socalled pro video. Add some aftermarket mics and you'll have a heck of a setup for under $1500