Recommended video camera/microphone for oral exams?

[Sonic3]

I'm sure there are plenty of different solutions for this. We've been using an iPad with a tripod but the iPad is on its last legs and it doesn't do a good job at recording the audio. We're looking for a good setup for recording oral exams, often involving several students at the same time. Video and audio. I was thinking a decent video camera with an external microphone? What do you use in your schools?

[round2it]

voice recorder/ dicta phone with external mic, record into mp3 just download and send off to exam board. job done.

 

no need for video to my knowledge but depends on exam board

[Sonic3]

voice recorder/ dicta phone with external mic, record into mp3 just download and send off to exam board. job done.

 

no need for video to my knowledge but depends on exam board

 

Perfect for when they only need audio, thanks. But for some tests they require video as well.

[dhicks]

I was thinking a decent video camera with an external microphone?

 

We use cheaper Panasonic camcorders - we have some model HDC-SD90 (about £200, possibly cheaper on eBay), but I'm pretty sure there's a newer model out now. With a 128GB SD card they will record for (I think) almost a day at a time and, if you don't have mains handy or just don't want any cable clutter, you can run them off an external USB battery pack (£30). They will take a hot-shoe adaptor for an external shotgun mic but the integrated one is okay. I've also used them with a cheap (£20) HDMI-to-USB adaptor as webcams, for which they work surprisingly well. They're cheap enough that you can plonk one on a single-pole mic stand (£20), cable-tie a USB battery pack to the pole and have them as a ready-to-go device you can just grab and plonk down wherever someone needs a bit of video / audio recording.

[Sonic3]

We use cheaper Panasonic camcorders - we have some model HDC-SD90 (about £200, possibly cheaper on eBay), but I'm pretty sure there's a newer model out now. With a 128GB SD card they will record for (I think) almost a day at a time and, if you don't have mains handy or just don't want any cable clutter, you can run them off an external USB battery pack (£30). They will take a hot-shoe adaptor for an external shotgun mic but the integrated one is okay. I've also used them with a cheap (£20) HDMI-to-USB adaptor as webcams, for which they work surprisingly well. They're cheap enough that you can plonk one on a single-pole mic stand (£20), cable-tie a USB battery pack to the pole and have them as a ready-to-go device you can just grab and plonk down wherever someone needs a bit of video / audio recording.

 

Brilliant. Thank you! I'll try that

[Jay241]

So it really depends on how wide of a angle lens you need on the Webcam but we run both of these in our school.

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B089QPJG8S/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Logitech-Widescreen-Noise-Reducing-Automatic-Correction/dp/B01BGBJ8Y0/ref=sr_1_4?dchild=1&keywords=webcam&qid=1633515224&sr=8-4

 

The Logitech webcam has a really good microphone for how small it is, as in very crisp and clear audio. And the standard 1080P webcam has a really wide angle Lens and the audio is fairly okay, but if you need crisp audio, deffo recommend the Logitech webcam.

Failing that, we do also use Blue Snowball's as well for specific audio production stuff we need to do. So that could be a option you go down.