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Good digital camera for recording video at gigs?
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Okay so basically I’ve had a look around on here, but none of it’s working for me.
I’m looking for a good COMPACT (not a bridge nor an SLR) digital camera with good zoom and HQ video capture. It needs to be good for capturing audio, too, seeing as I’ll be taking it to gigs and stuff.
I have Canon Powershot S3 IS and it takes amazing quality video and photos, but the audio is just horrible, and its just way too big to keep taking to concerts, and its heavy too so I can’t jump around holding it :P The zoom is amazing on it though, 12x optical and like 44x combined or something.
Anyway.
I was looking at the Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ5, and it seemed good with 9.1 MP and 10x optical zoom, but then I read reviews and found samples of footage shot at concerts and the audio quality was terrible.
I found video footage of recent McFly concerts (where I’ll most likely be videoing so yeah…) and there were some really good quality videos on there taken with a Sony Cybershot, but I was just wondering which model would be best? Bearing in mind it needs good zoom ’cause I’m usually stuck in fairly bad seats.

Or if you have any other suggestions, do tell me :)
It’s not all that urgent but I’d like to ask for it for Christmas ’cause my parents want to know what I want :p

But PLEASE, do not just tell me a brand, I want a model and some examples wouldn’t go amiss, though I could search those out myself, I’m not entirely lazy :P
I clearly said COMPACT camera, not an SLR or bridge or DSLR or whatever.
I'd quite like to be able to take stills as well as the video footage, and I wouldn't be able to set up an extra microphone thing like somebody suggested seeing as it's more than likely going to be prohibited :/

Two things.

1. A regular digital camera will take video but not as good as a video camera. Your S3 IS is about as good as any camera for taking video. You can even use the zoom during filming, which you can’t with most cameras. You can buy a camcorder for less than a good digital still camera these days. Check out woot.com. They have one item every day, usually a closeout or something, and every so often it’s a camcorder. Usually they have IS (like your Canon) and about 100x zoom.

2. The real problem with the audio is that the mic is on the camera. So you can’t get good sound because it’s bouncing all over the room so everything sounds all echoey and indistinct. You have to get the mic up closer to the sound source to get good sound. What you really need for this kind of work is a camera with a mic. input, then a separate mic on a long cord. Some people these days use a separate device to record sound, like a minidisk recorder or a ‘field recorder’ that records to flash memory cards, then sync it up later in ‘post production’.

admin @ 1:12 am

3 Comments for 'Good digital camera for recording video at gigs?'

  1.  
    Dgdh D
    January 2, 2009 | 6:34 am
     

    Canon 5d Mark II
    References :
    http://www.itreallyisfree.com

  2.  
    xXx-Jaden-xXx
    January 2, 2009 | 6:48 am
     

    Nikon D90
    References :
    Owner of one

  3.  
    It's That Guy
    January 2, 2009 | 6:55 am
     

    Two things.

    1. A regular digital camera will take video but not as good as a video camera. Your S3 IS is about as good as any camera for taking video. You can even use the zoom during filming, which you can’t with most cameras. You can buy a camcorder for less than a good digital still camera these days. Check out woot.com. They have one item every day, usually a closeout or something, and every so often it’s a camcorder. Usually they have IS (like your Canon) and about 100x zoom.

    2. The real problem with the audio is that the mic is on the camera. So you can’t get good sound because it’s bouncing all over the room so everything sounds all echoey and indistinct. You have to get the mic up closer to the sound source to get good sound. What you really need for this kind of work is a camera with a mic. input, then a separate mic on a long cord. Some people these days use a separate device to record sound, like a minidisk recorder or a ‘field recorder’ that records to flash memory cards, then sync it up later in ‘post production’.
    References :

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