What's a good quality camcorder for under $300?

Whats a good camcorder? looking for sound quality and decent mega pixels.?

• This will mainly be used for going to local band shows and what not. Needless to say the memory on a camera and the sounds quality are not cutting it. For the christmas list this year i'm looking to get a new camcorder. I'm really aiming for good sound quality and wouldn't mind having the mic attachment i just never have the patience to sit down and find one online myself. Also would like the picture to be nice, but i know the mage pixels on a camcorder can get pretty high and i'm not looking to spend to much.

• Answer:

  Using an external mic may help, but is not the solution. The reason consumer cams record poor loud audio is because the generally rely on the camcorder's built-in auto mic gain. The AMG cannot keep up with loud audio (amplified or not). The result is muddy sounding audio that oversaturates the audio track and there is a lot of clipping (sounds like static).To bypass this, the audio recording device needs manual audio control. For capturing useful audio, you have two options: 1) Use a camcorder with manual audio control. The least expensive camcorder - of which I am aware - with manual audio control, are the Canon HV30 and the Sony HDR-HC9. They both have a 1/8" (3.5mm) stereo audio-in jack, too - but their built-in mics will be fine for the laud audio application you indicated. 2) Keep using the camcorder you are using and get a "field recorder". Edirol, Tascam, Zoom, Marantz, Sony - and others - make field audio recorders that all have manual audio control. When you edit the video, import the audio from the field recorder, sync with the video, mute the crummy audio that was captured with the video and you are good to go. Camcorders are not measured using megapixels. Digital still cameras are. Some consumer camcorders can take stills - but if you want good stills, use a separate digital still camcorder. The converse also applies - Some consumer digital still cameras can take video - but if you want good video, use a separate video camcorder.