Okay guys - I was looking at picking up a good spotting scope.However, after looking at what's available I've determined that, for just about the same price, I can buy a digital video camera with a monster zoom - that will accomplish the same objective.

Why a video camera over a spotting scope? The camera willgive me footage to post all over youtube in my quest to become the next Bill Jordan!

What I need is something with a MONSTER zoom. Most of my glassing is 400+ yards out, and I need to pull it in. Secondly, it needs a low light setting, so I can use it in the late evenings and even while spotlighting.

Third - this thing can't be some nancy sissified camera. It's gonna get damp and banged around. I frequently destroy things.

Thefourth criteria is probably most important: Price!

I'm an enormous cheapass, so I gotta keep the price as low as possible.

I'd like to buy it sometime early next month. I'm gonna sell some plasma and sperm over the next couple weeks and save up some dough.

Good luck finding one with those capabilities cheap(especial with high quality footage). I found a great spotting scope at an astronomy/hobby store clearanced for less than $100. Might want to look somewhere like that if you can't find the cheap camera.

That is going to be hard to find. Some of our camera run up to 100K + that is right 100K+ and they are not great at lowlight. We usually have to pack it up about 30min before the rest of us would be done hunting... I would go with a nice spotting scope. Nikon makes a low cost decent quality scope.

LOL - I think you guys are misinterpreting my request. I don't need or want any type of professional-grade or HD recorder. I just want a glorified spotting scope that records.

My homeboy has a $200 piece of crap JVC that's a few years old - and it works fine for what I need. It's just a major pain in the ass, b/c it still uses tapes - and we can't get the stills onto the cpu.

Seriously: A low-light setting, rubber gasketed seals, a minimum of 30x optical zoom and cheap. Those are my requirements. I don't need to go overboard. I'm not filming HD movies here.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000TRGRNI

http://www.zoommania.com/descript.asp?prodid=DZHS500A

http://www.amazon.com/Panasonic-PV-GS35-MiniDV-Camcorder-Optical/dp/B0007QN874

http://www.pricespider.com/products/456852/Hitachi-Digital-Camcorder-30X-Optical-Zoom-1500X-Digital-Zoom-1-6--CCD-2-7--16-9-Widescreen-DZ-GX5020A.html

Did a search and found these.

Now that's in the ballpark of what I'm looking for, Bruce.

Ideally, I'd like to keep it around $175-250 - and I'm partial to the digital recorders, so I don't have to fuss with dvd's or anything. $450 would be the MAX, before I start going into convulsions and getting diarrhea at the thought of spending too much money.

Is there a certain feature or brand that has a better design as far as weather resistance goes? Now, I'm not planning on soaking it in a downpour, but I know I'll have it out on some humid days - and there will come a time where it will be exposed to some type of light moisture.

http://www.nulime.com/6-0-Megapixel-Outdoor-Water-Resistant-Digital-Video-Camera/p225358

http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-SCX105L-Sports-Camcorder-Optical/dp/B0007QN8AG

http://dealnews.com/Panasonic-SDR-S10-P1-SD-Camcorder-for-200-free-shipping/221003.html

It seems that you will have to decide on the "trade-off". granted, these are fast searches and I am skimming them but, you can have weather/water resistance at a cost of optical zoom or vice-versa. Personally, I would take the best optics/zoom and then buy a weather resistant case. If you are careful you can film and still keep it dry unless it is a downpour but that would probably affect the picture clarity LOL.

Bruce - I've been looking too - and I think you're right. There are weather-resistant models, but you buy those at the expense of a good zoom.

I need the zoom.

So I'll probably just get a cheapie with asolid opticalzoom and try to keep it as dry as possible.

As for the night-shot feature, I don't need tv-quality footage. I just wanna be able to look at it on the bigscreen and be able to count the points on a nice buck. Maybe do a few still captures to show the HNI crew what a real Pennsylvania Booner looks like. LOL

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=5621882

My buddy has one similar to this that works well and he found it in a pawn shop for like $150. From what I have looked at JVC is a good bet most of them have a good zoom and a hard drive with SD card expansion if you need it. I can't find it online but I went to walmart the other day and they had a JVC for around $200 just like you are talkin about.

Some at best buy.
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?id=pcat17080&type=page&qp=croo tcategoryid%23%23-1%23%23-1~~q70726f63657373696e6774696d653a3e313930302d3031 2d3031~~cabcat0400000%23%230%23%23dh~~cabcat040300 0%23%230%23%231j~~f398%7C%7C4a5643~~ncabcat0403002 %23%230%23%238&list=y&nrp=15&usc=abcat 0400000&sc=abCameraCamcorderSP

Something like this?

http://forums.slickdeals.net/showthread.php?sduid=0&t=789192


or make sure that you check this site with some regularity, should be able to find a videocamera for under $200 in a month or so

http://forums.slickdeals.net/forumdisplay.php?sduid=0&f=9&sort=threadst arted&order=desc&daysprune=7&icon=28


or the main page of the site

http://slickdeals.net/