I loved all the recommendations for the Canon L2 a very impressive piece of
equipment with an eye-watering price of $4,200. Slightly over my buget. I'd
have to go into movie making to justify splashing out on that.

Still I'm very impressed with Canon stuff - superb optics and brand
identification, etc. So the object of my desires is going to be the Canon
ES2000 (Hi8 format) for the following reasons (in case you're interested):

1. 20x optical zoom. I played around with one in the shop - pointed out of
the window. I could zoom in of a imaginary flock of 8 sanderling all the way
across a generic mall parking lot - not bad. Certainly will work in the field.

2. Optical stabilisation. Only the Canon's and a couple of high end Sony
camcorders have this. Everybody else uses electronic stabilisation which is
not as good since it relies on a computer measuring the wobbles and
compensating for it. In optical stabilisatoin, the lens is mounted in a fluid
(well that's my interpretation of the jargon) and the inertia of the liquid
keeps the thing steady - if you've tried turning a mug of hot chocolate to get
at that last piece of marshmallow then you can see how this works ;-)

3. Battery pack life of 2.5 hours (not standard) - not sure if this is
available with other camcorders.


The list price is about $1,600. The ES800 offers all the same goodies for
$1,100 but with a 12x zoom. I decided to go with the higher magnification so
it doesn't limit my options - not sure whether the sanderling will be shy
enough to justify it though.

Stuart