Sub $350 Camera with Audio In

PaulGriffith

PaulGriffith

I now feel for you guys trying to buy the under $400 camera. I'm shopping for a friend. He does live events and needs a cheap camera that can pull audio from the sound board.

I've been digging through threads and googling like crazy but I'm not turning up much. Especially since it's hard to determine what's $300 now as opposed to $300 new 2 years ago.

So, for you guys really familiar with these cameras, what's the best bet for these conditions:

Under $350 ($300 is the goal)
Audio In
Memory Card or HDD preferred, but not an absolute necessity. It needs to go for about 90 minutes without a card/tape change.

Thanks for your help!

Edit: Used is fine too, doesn't need to be new.
 
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Well, at the bottom of the line, there's something like the Kodak Zi8. It'll run about $120, has a microphone in, and records reasonable quality video as long as you use a tripod or a really good stabilizer. I have one, though I don't use it now that I have my GH1.

The GH1 would be another option, though it's more expensive (about $400-$450 for body-only, plus whatever you want to spend on lenses, so far I've put about $125 into that end of things, buying just vintage lenses).
 
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Why on Earth would you want to mic in on video when you could lay it in in editing?

Find whichever resolution (720p or 1080) camera he's comfy with and then drop in audio from a digital recorder jacked into the sound board.
No umbilical cord tethering!
 
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I'll look into those.

And he's not really the most tech savvy guy, let alone an editor. He needs to be able to capture/transfer and upload to YouTube, the less steps in the middle the better.
 
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PaulGriffith said:
And he's not really the most tech savvy guy, let alone an editor. He needs to be able to capture/transfer and upload to YouTube, the less steps in the middle the better.
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Fair enough.

I have a Xacti 1010 with a 3.5 mm external mic jack, manual controls on several things - and - a "Simple Mode" your friend might be interested in. Makes decent pictures.
They're usually on ebay, used, for between $200 and $300.

I believe some of these other Sanyo products also have 3.5 mm mic jacks you two can go digging through specs and finding on ebay.
http://sanyo.com/xacti/english/products/index.html

GL!

EDIT: Just checked the line's "large lens" cameras (not real interested in the little fixed lens jobbies, myself), Seems only the 1010 and 2000/A have mic input jacks.


Canon Vixia line: http://usa.canon.com/cusa/consumer/products/camcorders/consumer_camcorders
The 1/4 CMOS makes for a weak "Effective Video Resolution" @ 3.0MP, but that 24p cinema mode + 15x zoom look interesting.
You like the video images you get on yours, Dreadylocks?
 
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