Video camera to record school plays - needs to be easy to get onto DVD

[sidewinder]

Our junior school has been allowed to purchase a video camera for recording school plays. At first I didnt think it would matter too much which model they got, now though I've come to my senses and realised it will be ME that probably ends up having to convert it to DVD, unless any come with such software?

 

All the camcorders seem very cheap these days, and I havent used one for years. I see they mostly record onto SD card, which is great, but in what format, and am I going to need to buy a copy of Premiere or similar to get this stuff onto DVD or do they usually come with such software?

 

Budget is about £3-400

[jamesfed]

All to often I have seen school plays done on piddley little cameras which have a tiny lense - this means that in the low light conditions of a play (and belive me they all are) the picture is very graney.

 

Personaly I wouldn't want to ever pay money to have a copy of a DVD with video qulity like that so if you do ever expect to get people to pay for the DVDs do try and up your budget somewhat and get a propper camera - that or see if there is somone in the local area you can rent one from.

[mdench]

camera with a large wide lense would ensure enough light was allowed in to give a decent picture

 

Most of the time they record to mp4 size of file dependant on the quality you are recording.

 

Copy it off and use either movie maker or win7 dvd maker and burn it straight to dvd

[Brpilot99]

We have a full dress rehersal of our plays with all the lights turned on to max. I record using a couple of JVC everios's then after sync up the two in serif moviemaker .. edit the 2 together and burn to dvd directly from the program.