Advice please - whats best "prosumer" level camera for shooting live music gigs?

martco

hi,
more of a sound question I think....
I want to do footage of my mates live gigs, put up some vids to promote them a bit (as they're pretty useless at that to be honest)
Not experienced at video at all....
My problem is sound, it's always awful. Its Punk music so not some gentle symphony orchestra affair (no jokes about taste please

I get the sort of scenario you see with everyones personal footage landed up to youtube of live gigs really...I've tried with a couple of basic cameras at home (Sony, ixus, iPhone...) dreadful distorted. Vid quality isn't worst (funny iPhone not bad at all) but sound is the pits

I'm guessing the real answer to this is to record off the sounddesk separately (problem is thats not always possible/feasible) but just wondered if there was anything in the current crop of affordable handheld devices up to something like this....

thanks

cnocbui

A camera that supports off-board mics is probably your best bet.

This was shot using an Olympus E-M5 using the built in mics I believe:

The Panasonic GH2 is the gold standard for video though and is used by many pros. here is someone testing it's inbuilt mic:

http://vimeo.com/18102166

a music video shot with one, probably using the on board mics:

xshayx

Janer - AnimalRights on here - is the man to ask, videoing/photoing punk gigs for years