If you are looking to share with friends and fam. I would check and find a "landscape" mode or one that has a manual focus ring. There is nothing more frustrating than having a critter right below you, and in the frame, but the camera is focused on a leaf 2 feet from the camera. Any digital camera now will be plenty good quality to share with friends and/or post to the internet.
Make sure it has manual focus.
Check the stats on the camera for a Lux rating.
The lower the lux number the lower light it will film well
High lux rating of 5 or more then u will not be able to film past documented sunrise/sunset times.
A low lux rating of 1-3 will allow a camera to film close to dark especially for bowhunting.
Night shot is a nice feature to have, but will not work if u plan on using it deer hunting. The infared light the niteshot uses to illuminate is only effective for approximately 10 feet or so.

If i were u I would prolly stay your route as far as Mem card instead of tapes. You can spend $100 in memory cards and back it up to multiple dvds and reuse you cards over and over again. I'm using a Canon GL1 still right now and is such a pain and drag on my wallet to just have to keep buying tape after tape.
Good Luck! Welcome to the club, I have some hunts I've been putting on youtube check out the Channel. BOWNUTZ

Jimi