Panasonic SD90 camcorder or Canon SX230 HS camera?

[mercury66]

Hello, first post - hello everybody.
I am the newbie everyone dreads!

I'm looking to step into shooting some simple close up band video footage, clubs, small venues. In 1080P HD. Budget sub £500.

Since I'm not too concerned on the stills front, I'm wondering if a dedicated movie camera like Panasonic SD90 would give better movie results than a still camera with HD recording facility such as the Canon SX230 HS?

Also if moving to these would be a step up from, or similar to an iphone 4 which I have?

Any advice on this - or best camcorder/camera in my budget for this kind of 'low light' activity greatly appreciated.

Thanks.
E

[SWard2011]

Hi there.
A few months ago I bought a JVC camcorder to film gigs but unfortunately I got huge sound distortions and I was upset. Last week I bought a Panasonic SD90 and I went to a local club and filmed a couple of rather loud rock bands with it. There was no sound distortions what so ever. The SD90 has a microphone gain control where you can in effect alter the sensitivity of the built in mic. This is vital for recording loud bands using amplifiers. The SD90 also has a mic jack so you can connect an external mic which would give you even better results. The SD90 also has great low light performance, so filming bands in very low light is not a problem, and the SD90 never went out of focus at all. You can also take pics at the same time as filming video which is handy. The SD90 is a very high quality camcorder giving 1080p 50fps video and I am extremely pleased with it. My advice is, if you're filming bands in gigs, don't get a cheap camcorder, get a more expensive one which will give you manual control over the built in microphone. Also get a high performance SD HC memory card. I use a Sandisk extreme 16GB class 10 card which is very high performance, this is vital as well. Anyway, I would recommend the SD90. Good luck with your filming!!
Steven.

[mercury66]

Hi Steven,

Thanks for the info - and real life insight into using camcorders and bands - very much appreciated!!

In the end I found some internet deals on the Panasonic SD900, and stretched my budget a little to reach that. I believe it has the same functionality, what really sold it, like the SD90, was the mic in/controls. Not sure the bands will want that degree of set up, but it is there for future.

Are you actually filming bands - or was that a test? If you are I'd love to see how you get on/ results you are getting as this is a completely new thing for me.

I'm now looking at monpods lol.

Thanks again,
Ewan

..The SD90 is a very high quality camcorder giving 1080p 50fps video and I am extremely pleased with it. My advice is, if you're filming bands in gigs, don't get a cheap camcorder, get a more expensive one which will give you manual control over the built in microphone. Also get a high performance SD HC memory card. I use a Sandisk extreme 16GB class 10 card which is very high performance, this is vital as well. Anyway, I would recommend the SD90. Good luck with your filming!!
Steven.

[TimStannard]

In the end I found some internet deals on the Panasonic SD900, and stretched my budget a little to reach that.

That was a very good decision. The 90 is good but the 900 is far superior.
As for recording bands, you don't want to be using mics at all, you really want a feed from the desk - preferably to a separate recorder so you can still use camera mics for some ambient sound.