I wouldn't be too concerned with low light folks. I have been recording whitetail hunts for going on 5 years now and I can count on 1 hand the number of times we could have gotten it done if we had better light for our camera.

You should do some research on cameras before you buy one. You should know what you want first and what you want to do with it, that will drive your buying decision.

If you don't care about HD vs SD, then check out the Sony PD170 or the Canon GL2. A lot of people started in the industry with these cameras, even Drury bros!

I am not fan of consumer camcorders, but budgets are budgets and you have to stick to them. I think I would watch a video and tell you right away wether or not it was shot with consumer or prosumer camcorder.

Image stabalization and 20X zoom are very important to hunting videos! You wont find both with consumer camcorders. But then again, if you are just doing it for fun, the consumer camcorders will work just fine! Your next question then should be tape or tapeless. It all depends on you! I use tapes....for backup purposes, but I also download my hunts and put them together for myself. Tapeless is easier for that, as every time you hit record and stop, you get a file. But, lose your computer or whatever you save things on and your work is GONE! Good thing now a days, external hard drivers are cheap...so back up your back up your back up!