Decent Video Camera for Website Posting?

In thinking about revitalizing my ossified website - I also think about posting some video, and with this in mind I'd sure appreciate a bit of advice on what would be suitable for this...camera-wise.

I really don't want anything fancy, but having said this - I'd want something with decent sound quality, plus sufficient low-light capacity to allow filming printing procedures with safelight illumination. Decent closeup capability would also be a plus, at least enough to allow, for example, filling the frame with a 5x7 inch LF focussing screen. Aside from this...no need for super hi resolution, or super zoom range. Just something to look and sound decent on my website.

Would be great if I could spend no more than two hundred dollars - and getting something used is certainly more than OK with me.

(A bit of useful info might be that I currently use a MacBook Pro, and plan to stick with this).

If I had to sacrifice any of the above desired features, at least from a cost-saving angle, I suppose that the low-light capacity would need to be omitted - and I guess I could live with this and do a bit of creative darkroom staging with regular room lighting. At any rate, I would so appreciate some sage advice....thank you!

EDIT: Might as well ask this also...seeing as I need to upgrade my photo editing software (again, mostly for website use): I'm looking at the Lightroom 6 version that is still on DVD, and am wondering if this might also support the above mentioned video needs. Thanks Again!

Lightroom doesn't do video. At least, my older LR 5 doesn't. Not sure if that's a feature they intended to implement. For editing video, I personally prefer Sony Vegas, but any of the built-in softwares on your computer should do well enough.

Do you have a digital camera? I ask, because many do, but forget they do (excellent) video, especially more recent cameras.

If not - for that kind of cash, I personally would recommend an older Panasonic camcorder, specifically the models that shoot 1080p with 3 CMOS sensors. I actually use these older models for pro video work as stationary secondary cameras and for corporate video. They were quite good for the time and hold up well as long as you don't expect the latest-and-greatest features and extreme resolution or low-light performance. Most importantly, they can be found fairly cheaply as camcorders do not keep value well.

Another option would be an older GoPro, but they have pretty bad low-light performance and the fisheye effect may be inappropriate for your needs (you can set it to crop in to make a more "normal" view, but you lose resolution/performance, which is already middling to begin with).

OK...here's a follow up question - I have an iPhone 8, which has very decent video quality. Problem is, at least when I'm filming on locations outside - is mediocre sound quality. Thinking that the microphone is facing forward while I'm filming from behind the iPhone - might there be some kind of fix...maybe as simple as a piece of a paper or styrofoam cup cut and mounted to the iPhone to allow for my voice to reflect from behind and into the mic? Or maybe there's a mic accessory that I don't know about?

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Originally Posted by John Layton

OK...here's a follow up question - I have an iPhone 8, which has very decent video quality. Problem is, at least when I'm filming on locations outside - is mediocre sound quality. Thinking that the microphone is facing forward while I'm filming from behind the iPhone - might there be some kind of fix...maybe as simple as a piece of a paper or styrofoam cup cut and mounted to the iPhone to allow for my voice to reflect from behind and into the mic? Or maybe there's a mic accessory that I don't know about?

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Many, https://www.podcastinsights.com/best-iphone-microphone/

Bryan and Bob...thanks to you both! I think I'll try the iPhone route first - seeing as I already have one.

iPhone is good for video, from what I understand. I can't help you with mic accessories as I don't use i-devices but if you ever decide to get something nicer or need exterior sound, I would recommend an old Zoom H4 (really cheap these days) and use the built-in mics or buy an inexpensive lavalier/lapel mic (these guys make good cheap mics). Then you can have the mics in a different location than the filming setup - good for narration. It's fairly easy to line up video and audio after the fact.

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Originally Posted by Corran

I would recommend an old Zoom H4

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So would I.

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Originally Posted by bigdog

So would I.

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Me, too.

I use a Sony PGM M10 which has amazing battery life. Out of production the replacement is even better.

I have a couple older Rode mics, one stereo and one shotgun with windsock muffs.

I even have a tiny boom with extension cable.

My iPhone SE is the best video camera I ever bought. I put a big handle on it and use a BT trigger.

Room ambience is the difficult and noisy part.

I used to have access to a sound proof audio room. It was a large closet, with lots of foam triangles. https://ehomerecordingstudio.com/soundproof-room/

My shed is now my best recording room. Very few reflecting areas.

After market microphone options yes... Adobe Premier Elements yes. You can adjust sound level and fade in/out in each little clip in Elements. I don't think it will automatically sync sound from a separate recorder though. If shopping for a video camera, find something with the mic plug. If it's for talking, a clip on mic with a long cord is great and you don't need to deal with batteries. Room noise is less because it needs less amplification to hear you well. Low light is not that important; my $100 cell phone will record in red led safelight conditions with almost no noise; it's bright to the camera but not as bright to our eyes.

Premier Elements doesn't automatically sync sound, but it's easy enough to do by matching the sound waveforms from the camera and recorder. You can help yourself by imitating the clapper that the pros use - just clap your hands either at the beginning or end of the clip. You'll see it on the waveform tracks in Premier. If your camera is not recording sound, you'll match the sound of the clap to the hands meeting on the video - just like old-time Hollywood editors before the days of timecode.

Rode makes an inexpensive shotgun mic for video that will mount on the hot shoe of your DSLR, if you're using that for video. It records good sound.

There's a fundamental law of audio: The camera position is never the best place for the microphone, but it is sometimes about the worst.

If you're going to be talking over the video, you probably want a lavalier mic that will clip on to your shirt collar with a small recorder in your pocket or clipped to your belt. It will let you move around without altering the sound quality. If the mic is mounted on a stationary camera and you move around it will sound bad in stereo and even if you drop to mono, the sound strength will vary all over the place. One of the Zoom recorders or a 2nd hand Sony PCM should be enough.

A Canon Vixia or something similar will be a good camera for what you're doing. I have 5 of them that I used for spot video when recording classical orchestras - sometimes had as many as 8 to 10 cameras running at a time. I never paid more than $100 - $125 for a refurbed Vixia at B&H. I'd avoid the GoPro - the lens is too wide for most stuff and the camera itself is too fussy - I have 3 of them that I'd use for things like a very wide audience shot from the back of the orchestra to pick up applause etc. I could trigger them from a smartphone app but the batteries don't last very long and the cameras were prone to losing the connection to the phone. Your smartphone should give adequate video but the audio on these things is at least three steps worse than atrocious.

My main cameras were a JVC shoulder mount, a 2.5k Black Magic, a couple of Black Magic Pocket cams, and a Canon C-100. these are all nice cameras but gross overkill for what I think you want to do.

I've used Vegas as well as Adobe Premiere Pro - I recommend Vegas since it has very good audio capability. It actually started out as an audio package and morphed into a video application. It's one of the most user friendly of the bunch and not too expensive. But it's PC only. I already have the full Adobe suite so no reason not to use Premiere but it has a steep learning curve. Black Magic makes a version of their DaVinci Resolve application available free of charge. It started as a color correction tool that was used by most of the Hollywood studios, but in the last few releases they've added enough general editing capabilities to satisfy most editing requirements. It's a fully professional (ie steep learning curve) piece of software even in the free version By the way, did I mention that it's free for download from the Black Magic website?

https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/pro...avinciresolve/

A couple of good online forums

DVINFO.NET - Mostly aimed at digital video but has a rather good Audio sub-forum.

Gearslutz.com. Strange name but most of the members are professional sound guys.

There's an application called Plural Eyes. If you record into the camera you can use that as a synchronization track and it will sync up a bunch of audio tracks from separate recorders. after which you delete the camera audio track. Works well, but it's probably overkill and it isn't free.

Plural Eyes is great (I use it for DVD productions usually with 6+ cameras and audio) but yeah probably overkill for syncing a single mic and video source. And it's expensive ($300 now I see). One way to mitigate excessive sync issues is to record all your "takes" in one go and then just sync it once - and then link the A/V clips and cut your video. Of course sometimes this isn't possible.

Two cameras are always better than one...allowing different views in the edit (not as boring as having to watch someone for 30min) :>)
Sometimes you can get some decent used eq from someone who is chasing better quality or 4K (Adorama, BH or KEH) for reliability sake.
Sometimes local CL may have something, but you have to test all that really well. Looks like the Vixia (new) models are pretty
reasonable + good recorder like Z4....will set you back around 500. Personally I like the old school (Sennheiser 416) mic, but
Audio-Technica makes pretty good stuff too. I hear Rode mic is good, but never used it. Anyway, good shutgun mike will isolate you
from many sounds around you. Ha, you add editing software and things get deeper......

Les

I used to use a clapboard, but the organizers didn't like it so I started using Plural Eyes. I had a custom cable made up to take the tape out from a Sound Devices recorder at FOH into a Wi fi transmitter, then picked the signal up in the balcony and sent it to every camera as a sync track. Worked great. By picking up the signal at FOH I didn't have to worry about audio lagging video - the latency in the system was such that audio lagged by about two frames which was perfect. I usually had one moving camera and a few pre focused on the director and the soloist and the fingers on the keyboard etc. Great fun

Can't agree more that two or three cameras are better than one - but it does make more work in post and color grading for the intercut footage.

I recently bought an iPad Mini 5 and it is working better, meaning sound and and video than a D750 with Rode Videomic

I use it for Zoom, etc and made a HS graduation video for a grandson minutes ago

My final words were, I sure hope to see him again!

I phone for anything on the web for me.. perfect device

I have zero skin in the video or audio game, but will you be recording sound during the videos, or will you be dubbing over video with audio/narration in post?

One thing that I have noticed with my IPhone 11 Pro is that it is very good at picking up ambient noise. Distance might prove to be an issue with clarity, so a lavalier mic could prove to be useful.

With any digital camera, even a phone, I would consider the brightness level of the screen if you are recording in the darkroom during printing sessions.

There you are Stone, long time!

Your points are relevant

I am making slideshows with voice over, short and quick

I use software on my Mini-5 that lets me edit 4 video tracks, 3 audio, adjust all of them and make titles

Yes, it's not free and I won't argue software

I am posting as YouTube Private, which locks the content tightly, the only way to share, is if I, as maker give someone directly by email the link which is useless if copied or forwarded

I also bought a Tiny Teleprompter sized for the Mini-5 and my iPhone SE old model

I can add external microphones and headphones to any of it and will give my D750 a second chance, outside IRL

All this works vastly better than my 1969 Super 8 film camera, but I still have original footage and digitized

I learned backup files are very important in 1982 when my wife taped over a family reunion. Lost forever...

May Anne RIP

The Sony ZV-1 is also excellent for a small package for Blogging etc.