small but cheap video camera?

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JonClarke

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Hi, im after a small video camera. one of those slim cameras with the movie recording function would be ideal, but not sure how good they are?

HD isn't important as long as the picture is still good, but sound quality is very important as it will mainly be used to record a gigs.


Dont want to spend too much, anything in the £100/200 range.
 
For decent sound quality you will need an external mic as the built in ones are pretty poor. Expect to pay around £100 just for the mic, £200 for a half decent camcorder with external mic input is doable. With a maximum budget of £200 you will struggle unless you get some second hand bargains.
 
CSB said:
For decent sound quality you will need an external mic as the built in ones are pretty poor. Expect to pay around £100 just for the mic, £200 for a half decent camcorder with external mic input is doable. With a maximum budget of £200 you will struggle unless you get some second hand bargains.
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Thanks for the reply

The sound doesn't have to be studio quality, just as long as it don't break up or distort at high volumes.

It will only be for uploading onto youtube etc so don't have to be too Fancie
 
Ideally you would need a camcorder that lets you set the audio input level manually so you dont get distortion but this is normally a feature of the more expensive camcorders. There are some bargain camcorders in the Argos clearance shop on ebay
 
http://direct.tesco.com/q/N.1999782$4294967146.aspx

girlfriend has got one of those, reasonably wide lens for it's size and decent reach/features and sound/visual quality is decent enough

they'd be my weapon of choice, just be careful with them because even though they're not flimsy they're not made as well as sonys/jvc's etc
 
recording anything at gigs, you're simply not going to get amazing sound anyway. For filming gigs, the way to go is a proper audio recording from the output of the sounddesk. We usually use a wireless kit that itself costs £400 to link between the sound desk and the camera's second XLR input.

The best you'll get with a built in or exterior mic is a camcorder with an adjustable level input on the mic, as CSB said. If you can get one with a mic input, and get a seperate mic to plug into it, you'll get sightly better performance - but to get this, the mic will cost about as much as your total budget...

If you're after a very simple one, check out the flip mino HD, meant to be pretty awesome to use. The ones linked above look pretty cool too, and better featured than the flip mino - though be wary of the costs of large sd cards too, otherwise you'll be limited in terms of recording time.

Sadly, video is something that's very hard to do well on a budget, gig video even moreso.
 
if you can get a mic in what about running a line from the desk, we record the output from the desk at all the open mic nights (no filming - radio broadcast) so that should work fine.
What about chopping you current camera in for one with video (nikon version of 5dII)? that might be a cheaper way round it?
 
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