New to video

[Chris Harding]

Hi Brian

Correct! Only the internal camera mic has auto level not the XLR channels so if you have the normal shotgun mic plugged in you have to set audio manually! The only other way around it is to set both XLR's to the mic and have one high and one low and then use whichever sounds better....It's crazy!!

My AC-130's had auto, my HMC82's had XLR auto and even my HMC72's had auto!! I have no idea why they didn't keep it in the camera!

Chris

[Bill Bruner]

Hi Monique - one more perspective. As a still photographer, you are accustomed to the flexibility of interchangeable lenses and the ability to control depth of field and bokeh with lens selection. The small sensor camcorders on your list may be frustrating in that regard.

If you were in the States with a $3K budget, I would suggest you take a look at the Sony NEX-EA50.


This camera can share your existing still camera's lenses (with an adapter), and will give you the control over depth of field and the individual lens "look" that you get from your DSLR - with the XLR inputs and ergonomics of a camcorder.

Here is what it can do:

Angelic Foe - Daughter of Fortitude on Vimeo

Crash Nomada - Tangled Up In Blue on Vimeo

Ras Daniel - Who Cares on Vimeo

Hope this is helpful!

Bill
Hybrid Camera Revolution

[Monique Keen]

Originally Posted by Dave Blackhurst

Since you already have a DSLR... does it include video functions, or would you be upgrading the body sometime soon to one that does?

I currently shoot with a Nikon D90, it does video but stupidly only has a few minutes limit depending on the quality you shoot at. I guess video wasn't a factor when i originally bought it :(

Originally Posted by John Nantz

Hi Monique,

I read your original post a few days ago and had a clarification question but didn't comment. The question is about audio:



On the one hand the post said that it (the camera?) "... will be used for recording music videos .... so audio isn't an issue as it will be over dubbed...."
Then the post says "... and audio is a massive thing too, ideally I would like to be able to record the audio directly into the camera ...."

This leaves me a little confused and I need some clarification help. Are there two audio situations? One being the actual music video where the audio will be provided by the sound guy in the recording studio and the another situation where audio will be recorded during rehearsals and not by the recording studio equipment?

If there are two audio "situations" then it would be good if there was a little more discussion about the second one - the recording during rehearsals. I would assume (but you know what they say about that) that the rehearsal recordings for the video wouldn't have to be as important as the studio one. However, I'd think that it is probably still important, but the question is, how much?

What is your feeling about audio? Is audio "covered" or is it something that should be discussed more? The reason I ask is depending on what the audio goals are it could become more involved as well as potentially more expensive. There are people who do just the audio part of video for a living because it is highly technical and there is a real art to it.

Hey John, i can see how i made that sound a little confusing, i will be using the camera mostly for recording rehearsals, so i would need something that can handle that sort of sound, being as i said earlier in quite a small room with them playing. So if i can get a camera that i can mount a decent mic on and it wont clip too much that would be ideal, as during rehearsals the guys don't mic up their amps, so the only sound coming through the PA is the vocals and whatever the vocal mic pics up from the amps/drums. So running straight to the desk is not an option there.

When and if it gets to the point of music videos, that is when i would just be using the recorded track over the top. Hope that clarifies it a little more?

[Chris Harding]

Hi Monique

I have two Sony EA-50's for shooting video and two Nikon D90's for shooting stills. For me the Sony's give me the right form factor for shooting with a shoulder mount camera (or tripod) and they give me decent XLR audio too and all the features I need on a camcorder BUT with a DSLR sensor ...It's a win win for me as with an adapter I can also use all my Nikon lenses so I keep the Nikon's purely for stills and the Sony's purely for video.

Chris