DVcam for mostly night/red light w/ insects

Can anyone suggest models of miniDVcamera best suited to low light/red
light with some macro and zoom use?

I've been researching; I need something to use a bit at night with red
flashlights for filming nocturnal insects and spiders. Color accuracy
isn't nearly as important as sharpness and resolution of the night shots
overall. And animals will be moving around a bit.

I'm also favoring optical zoom over digital zoom- in general I find
digital zooms not satisfactory, at least in non-video cameras. I don't
care much about trying to use the miniDV for still shots, I have a nice
camera for stills. And size isn't important, but price needs to be
$600-700 or max.

I was looking at the JVC GRD90US but the 2.6 fstop seems to counter the
statement by the manufacturer that this is a low light camera? Unless
their Qe is better. But I like the 16X optical zoom. Sony DCR-TRV22
might be better quality images overall... any other suggestions?

For perspective, I've been using a 4 or 5 year old Canon ES970 8mm
camcorder, and at night, with small red LED flashlights to help light,
subjects 1 to 10 ft away (tarantulas and similar sized spiders and
insects, so not tiny, perhaps 3-4" across or more)...

Thanks for thoughts!

Brian