What's a really good quality video camera?

Which video camera(under $300 or so),has the best quality onboard mic suitable for recording a live band?

• Whats up, Im looking to get my hands on a video camera that would be able to record a live band performance with decent audio quality. Its for a scholarship application to Musicians Institute, so I want it to be good. I'm not tryin to spend a million bucks here either, but I know you get what you pay for. So Im askin what video camera has a decent onboard mic? Thanks all

• Answer:

  It depends on how loud the band is and how close the camera - and built-in mics - are to the audio. Typically, the camcorder mic is not the cause of the poor audio quality when it comes to recording loud audio. Under REALLY loud audio conditions, the camcorder's auto-mic-gain control will be overwhelmed and not be able to control the audio getting onto the camcorder's storage media. The result is very muddy audio caused by over saturation and clipping. This is not the fault of the camcorder's mic, but that of the auto mic gain control. The ONLY resolution - of which I am aware - is to have some sort of manual audio control. I am not aware of ANY consumer camcorder under about $500 that has manual audio control. You can check the low-end Sony camcorders - like the DCR-HC52. It *might* have a menu selection called "MicRefLevel" that has two settings... "Normal" for, well, normal audio levels - and "Low" for high audio levels (it sets the mic gain to "Low"). Got to the Sony.com support area search for the camera that interests you and download the manual to understand whether a particular camcorder has this setting. To the best of my knowledge, the least expensive camcorders with more granular manual audio control are the Canon HV20/HV30/HV40 and the Sony HDR-HC9. They are about 3x more than your stated budget. Another option is to rent a camcorder with manual audio control. Another option is to use whatever camcorder you want - but record the audio with an external "field recorder" like those from Zoom, Marantz, Edirol, Sony, M-Audio - among others. When you edit the video in your computer, import the audio from the field recorder, sync the audio with the camcorder audio, then mute the camcorder audio. The Canon ZR and FS camcorders have a mic jack - but no manual audio control. The "workaround is to use an XLR adapter like those from juicedLink or BeachTek, (plug XLR mics into the XLR adapter, plug the XLR adapter into the mic jack) and use the audio gain controls on the XLR adapter... The cameras meet your budget, but the XLR adapter and possibly the mics (if you need to get a couple - stereo, remember?) will blow your budget up... If the audio is not that loud - but within "normal" levels, most camcorders should be fine. The Canon ZR or FS ranges meet your budget requirements. Heck, even the toy flip cams will work - but keep in mind any camcorder less than about $1,500 will not do well in lowlight, so turn on lots of lights when capturing video with low-end camcorders.