Guidance on getting a camcorder

Nige78 · #1 (**permalink**) 05-02-2007, 02:51 PM

OK, here goes. I'm looking for a camcorder. I will be recording a band on tour of the UK so a mix of live footage (in the semi-dark) and soundcheck/backstage/other footage in a mixture of light, dark and somewhere in the middle. Shows will be around 80-90 minutes long and ideally I'd like to capture them in their entirety.

I'm looking at 20-odd shows (@ 90 mins say) plus roughly 1 hour extra per show = approx 3,000 minutes for the tour in total. I'll have limited access to a PC so back-up to PC probably won't be feasible.

We're looking at putting some of the footage onto DVD at the end so it needs to be the best possible quality - not up to HD standard though.

Any recommendations/advise/guidance? As you can maybe tell I'm fairly new to all this!

Alan Mills · #2 (**permalink**) 05-02-2007, 05:25 PM

Originally Posted by Nige78

OK, here goes. I'm looking for a camcorder. I will be recording a band on tour of the UK so a mix of live footage (in the semi-dark) and soundcheck/backstage/other footage in a mixture of light, dark and somewhere in the middle. Shows will be around 80-90 minutes long and ideally I'd like to capture them in their entirety.

I'm looking at 20-odd shows (@ 90 mins say) plus roughly 1 hour extra per show = approx 3,000 minutes for the tour in total. I'll have limited access to a PC so back-up to PC probably won't be feasible.

We're looking at putting some of the footage onto DVD at the end so it needs to be the best possible quality - not up to HD standard though.

Any recommendations/advise/guidance? As you can maybe tell I'm fairly new to all this!

This is a difficult one. If you are going to edit your footage and let's assume you will as you sound like you want to do a proper job, then you should aim at a miniDV camcorder. The problem with it though (and I don't know the asnwer) is that tapes are of the order of an hour long. I think you can get some 80 min tapes too but I;ve never used any. This all means that you will have to swap tapes at some point.

This will take a few seconds only but you will have a break in your recording so unless your band has scheduled breaks you'll miss something.

Also... assuming you will be mounting the camcorder on atripod to record then take extra care to get a camcorder that side loads and does not bottom load. It will take longer then to change tape as you will have to remove it from the tripod as well.

Nige78 · #3 (**permalink**) 05-02-2007, 09:09 PM

Originally Posted by Alan Mills

This is a difficult one. If you are going to edit your footage and let's assume you will as you sound like you want to do a proper job, then you should aim at a miniDV camcorder. The problem with it though (and I don't know the asnwer) is that tapes are of the order of an hour long. I think you can get some 80 min tapes too but I;ve never used any. This all means that you will have to swap tapes at some point.

This will take a few seconds only but you will have a break in your recording so unless your band has scheduled breaks you'll miss something.

60 minutes recording time isn't too bad - I figure I could get a quick tape change inbetween songs around the 55 minute mark.

Thanx for the advice......

bert6280 · #4 (**permalink**) 05-02-2007, 09:50 PM

You are going to need a lot of tapes.

You will need a tripod unless you want wobbly shots.

You will need an additional good-quality mic if you want decent sound, or at least some other equipment that will record decent sound for you.

You have a challenge on your hands.

What is your budget?

What do you want to produce? One DVD of the entire tour? If you plan to shoot 3000 minutes, you will probably end up using just under 5% in the final DVD. That's a lot of editing. A lot of surplus. A lot of waste?

If it were me, I'd question the need to capture every live minute of every live performance. Sure - the DVD will benefit from having footage from different venues. But the band will no doubt be doing similar sets at each gig.

Why not film, say, 5 songs per gig. Rotate the songs filmed. Each song will, over the course of the tour, be filmed maybe 3 or 4 times. That amount of material would do for me, thanks. I'd be able to do something useful with that, without having a tape mountain to climb.

Whatever you do, I would strongly advise a good labelling and logging discipline with your footage. Review completed tapes as you go and log the bits that you think are particularly good. This will save you heaps of time when it comes to capturing and editing.

Good luck - to be honest, I'm a little envious of you!

Alan Mills · #5 (**permalink**) 05-03-2007, 11:10 AM

Originally Posted by bert6280

You will need an additional good-quality mic if you want decent sound, or at least some other equipment that will record decent sound for you.

Bert's right here.

Getting good audio is propbably your biggest challenge here.

Consider it properly and research your options properly. We get lots of questions here asking how I can fix my audio recorded at a live gig. Often the answer is a simple 'hard luck!'. You can't make pearls from swine so if it's not recorded well you'll not get much from it in 'post' either.