We are looking at upgrading our three cameras. The PTZOptics cameras are out of our price range. We are instead, looking at Avipas and SMTAV brands. It seems the Avipas cameras are cheaper than PTZOptics and the SMTAV are the cheapest ones I have found. Does anybody have any good, or bad, experiences with either of these and are they compatible with vMix? Also, are there are other brands that I should look at?

EDIT: Just to add some detail about our setup - we will be using HDMI and that feeds into a Magewell 4 port HDMI capture card. The audio will not be taken from the camera, but from the sound board.

I worry about after-sale support. I've sent emails to both companies asking a few pre-sales type questions. I have gotten a response from both within 24 hours with all questions, but still am concerned that if we have problems I will not get good support.

I know you said that PTZOptics is out of your price range but I'd recommend looking at BirdDog (they are a bit more than PTZOptics).

I purchased a PTZOptics camera 2 years ago and I will never do so again. The image was nothing short of terrible. In particular, the hue was not uniform across the primaries. I could rotate the hue to match up the red but then the blues would be way off. PTZOptics didn't see it as a problem and wouldn't RMA the device. In the end our only option was to build our own LUT and use an AJA LUT-box (at which point the cost difference would have made the BirdDog a better option).

All this to say- if my experience is any indication then personally I'd be hesitant to buy anything cheaper than PTZOptics.