Camcorder for Performing Arts

[andy_d]

Our Head of Performing Arts is looking for a new camcorder for filming performances for the Exam Board and for other filming purposes for Drama.

 

Obviously you can get some pretty awesome camcorders these days for a reasonable figure, but I wondered if anyone could recommend any in particular.

 

He doesn't really have a particular budget in mind (other than it being less then £1000)

but I would be interested if anyone could recommend anything in £250-£350 price range, but also options for the £600 kind of price range.

 

Specific requirements he would like are:

 

• Easy to transfer from Camera to computer
  
• Easy to browse through recorded videos when using the actual camera (i.e the ability to quickly view things recorded from a week before)
  
• Allow the usage of an External Microphone - sometimes he films outside, so a external mic may be useful to allow for windshield etc
  

 

Hope someone has some suggestions

 

I've been having a look through review sites as well, and have a couple in mind, but thought I'd see what other people suggested.

[laserblazer]

External mic. socket is a must, as you've said. That's something budget cameras don't seem to have now, so it will help reduce the choice. Don't forget to include a decent tripod, extra batteries, the external mic. Take a look at the new Rode video mic pro. To be honest, no camcorder records decent audio using the internal mic. Some are worse than others.

[rad]

get an HDD camera that records to SD card, it will save you (as no doubt it will be you transfering to PC) time, just copy/paste then use movie maker to reduce and stitch together the files.

 

We have a sony one in our PE dept, saved hours literally