Sony's new 'Music Video' Camcorder

Beatlesfan1225

Beatlesfan1225

http://store.sony.com/music-video-recorder-zid27-HDRMV1/cat-27-catid-All-Handycam-Camcorders

So this camera sort of intrigues me, mostly because I feel like the nature of filming an actual music video makes this camera's function entirely obsolete.

It seems like they attempted to put decent onboard audio mics on a camcorder so people could film 'music videos' with it. However, at least in cases of my personal experience, you're usually just acting out your song when actually filming a music video - the song has already been recorded in the studio.

So, maybe that aspect of this camera is a bit obsolete. However, do you think this camera would be an interesting way to film either live performances, or short films that you don't want to use a separate audio recorder? Personally I'm intrigued by it because it seems like a nice grab-and-go camera. Whenever I shoot something with my DSLR and audio equipment, a lot of hassle is involved. Obviously, hassle = quality, but this little thing intrigues me for just filming quick little things on the go without entirely sacrificing audio.

Thoughts?
 
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Alcove Audio said:
Just a guess, but it seems to be aimed at the home performance YouTube crowd; you know, just set up the camera and play.
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Yeah, I could absolutely see that. I certainly am part of that crowd, but when I shoot my videos I actually hook up all of my studio equipment and sync it with the video later on.

One of the reasons I'm attracted to this camera is that I'll be moving to the city for film school this fall, and while I fully intend to bring my shotgun/boom mic and my T3i, I was considering something a bit smaller for more casual use. I could absolutely see myself wanting to shoot a small short or something across the street in Grand Park (Going to Chicago) and not wanting to wade my way through the city with a boom mic and sound guy, or a large rig with it set up as a shotgun.

So, this camera intrigues me a bit, because it looks like something I could just grab and go and have a bit of not-so-serious fun with, without getting the entirely crappy onboard audio most cameras of this nature have.
 
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Oh, and one other thing that draws me to this camera is that I do a LOT of coffee shop gigs, meaning a small set up and playing for three hours straight.

I've always wanted to get semi-decent video/sound of some of the performances, but bringing in my recording equipment or camera rig would hinder my shows drastically. This seems like an easy little gadget to just hand to a friend off stage and take short clips.

Obviously I'm not expecting it to be even remotely near the quality of my T3i, but the portable, sem-decent audio appeal of it is certainly alluring to me.
 
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ZOOM has the same offering (with higher audio resolution, at least by manufacturer's spec).

These are basically glorified, handheld audio recorders with a cheap camera stapled to the front. 30p only for the Sony (720p60 available on the Zoom), which may be fine, but with minimum illumination of 9lux (4.5 in low light mode), these things will need tons of light to get a half-decent image. That's not good news for coffee house scenarios and the like, where lighting is usually pretty lousy.
 
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Thanks Acoustic and Alcove, very helpful. You seem right on the money - audio recorder + crap camera. I didn't take that into account.

So, I'd love to ask a question to direct this away from the Sony and Zoom cameras a bit -
If I wanted a fairly inexpensive handheld that paired half-decent audio + visuals together, for casual use in coffee shop scenarios and whatnot, would there be such a camera?
 
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Beatlesfan1225 said:
If I wanted a fairly inexpensive handheld that paired half-decent audio + visuals together, for casual use in coffee shop scenarios and whatnot, would there be such a camera?
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What's your cut-off for "fairly inexpensive?"

In the comparable $300-ish range to the cameras originally discussed, you aren't going to get what you want. The predicament is that you want good low-light/high-ISO (or high-gain) performance with usable in-camera sound. Such a beast does not exist. Any small camcorder in that range will have a tiny chip and thus miserable light sensitivity. Nothing in that range will have sound recording that's worth writing home about.

One compromise may be the EOS-M. It performs well in high-ISO situations and has manual audio controls. It's still DSLR in-camera sound, but it's so cheap that adding a DR-60D should be reasonable, giving a feed to the camera and recording a better external version in case you need/want it. Plus, it is able to bridge files for continuous recording past the nominal 12-minute limit that other Canon DSLRs have. Get it while you can, because they're discontinuing it. The 22mm f/2.0 lens is sharp as a tack.
 
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