Newbie advise required

[SAR]

Hiya All
As the title states, a newbie here looking for some advise, so hope you can help.
Have for some years been involved in studio photography to the point where I now earn a decent living taking both product and live model photography, but till now have steered clear of video production.
Have been increasingly requested if I can also do video along with stills as part of modeling sessions. Now have good studio facilities with plenty of daylight continuous lighting equipment, but if I am honest, simply don't have a clue where to start in terms of camcorder hardware requirements. Not looking to spend £1000's of pounds, but would like some recommendations as to a decent starter/ mid range camcorder which will do the following:-
Easy conversion of video to MPEG/AVI/Quicktime formats for web publication
Reasonable low light performance
Good video and audio quality for DVD publication

Thanks in advance

Steve

[irishmark]

Mid Level Cameras start at around £1500. If you want to provide a professiona service then thats what you need to be thinking.

You could possibly get something for £750 - a good lens on a simple compact unit would be realistic for that price.

What ever you do DO NOT get a DVD camera - They are the spawn of Satan in the world of video cameras.

You will need editing software. Something at entry level professional level would be Sony Vegas or Adobe Premier Pro both of which have lots of encoding capabiliteis.

DVD - you could go with the Sony Vegas & Architect Bundle or Adobes Encore

LOw light should not matter - If you are a photographer then the same lighting kit will be fine for what you wanna do.

[Alan Mills]

And as you finished by mentioning audio then you do need to remember that internal microphones on camcorders are for decoration only. Get a camcorder with some sort of external microphone socket and get yourself the best mic you can afford.

Plenty id discussions on choosing a mic around here so you can search for advice on that.

[SAR]

Thanks Folks

Been doing a little bit of research and think you are basically right, the audio on most consumer cams seems to be pretty ropey. Did have a thought and started checking out hire companies in the UK and the semi pro models they rent out. So far, the following 2 camcorders seem to be about the level I am looking for

1) Sony DVCAM PDX10
2) Canon XL1S

Planning to rent out both in the near future and have a play, any thoughts as to any other cams at this level I might want to look at ?

PS... Canon looks very attractive as there seems to be a good used market on Ebay for the XL1S at a price level that fits my budget.

PPS... The Sony DCR-TRV950 also looks a cheaper, but attractive package

Steve

[bert6280]

I'm just going to add my two cents....

How important is widescreen to you? Neither of the cameras you mentioned shoot native 16:9.

The PDX10 is the 'pro' equivalent of the 950 and can do widescreen.

The XL2 was the replacement to the XL1s and also shoots native 16:9.