What is a good rangeto aim for when looking to buy. Heard you want more optical zoom.

Depends on what you are shooting and what results you are looking for. You heard correct though. You want OPTICAL zoom NOT digital zoom. In layman's term, optical means the camera uses lenses to make the image bigger. Digital means that it takes the image and blows it up to make it larger. Thus creating poor quality.

I like at least 16X to 20X. I filmed a lot of stuff with the PD-170 last year and felt handicapped because of the 12X zoom. For deer hunting in the woods, it is an absolute awesome camera. Anything out west, I want/ need more zoom.

I use a Panasonic and it is only 10x optical, works excellent for bowhunting deer, but for any type of rifle hunting you will want at least 20x, but that is also what they make telephoto lenses for,and you can get up to a 3x tele lens that will convert your 10x to a 30x...........