what is better..A low optical zoom (5) or a higher (20). I'm buying a camcorder and I am confuse

It seems on some websites that the lower the optical zoom, the higher the price!!

What is a Hitachi dz-mv1000 like? I can't find any reviews

the higher the zoom the better. don't get confused with optical and digital zoom. digital only increases the pixel size and is in no way as good as optical zoom. I would think that a higher zoom would be better. You could zoom in farther. Then there is always the matter of the digital zoom. Optical zoom of 20 is higher than 5, but to be honest you will find for normal everyday shots that 5X optical zoom will cover most situations. Be sure you are not getting Optical Zoom mixed up with Digital Zoom, Digital not near as good as optical, Any camera with Optical of 5X to 10X zoom would be good, unless you plan to do some close up work on something like wildlife where you are unable to get close to subject. A optical zoom is better than a digital zoom. The higher the zoom , more likely it is digital. The highest optical zoom you need is 10X. The higher-end cameras have lower zooms because they have high speed optical sensors to take pictures faster. The lower the zoom, the faster the camera can react. The higher the optical zoom the better. You should be able to get away with 5X optical zoom in most cases, but if you planning on taping sporting events, go for higher optical zoom. Digital zoom is not good enough you can have 800X digital zoom, but at its max, all you'll see is squares.