Best camcorder for under $1000?

[stantheman1976]

MY wife is going to be teaching Broadcast Journalism next year and needs to buy some equipment. I need to recommend a good camera for her. It cannot top $1000. I have a Panasonic PV-GS400 for our church that works well, but I have one complaint with it. When using an external mic you cannot change the input level on the fly or keep it from going past a certain dB and the automatic level tops out and doesn't sound good. If there is a way to get around that I'll recommend the Panasonic. Otherwise, what is another good 3 CCD camera for that price range?

[bennetts]

Go to

www.camcorderinfo.com

They do a great job at testing the video cameras under different conditions and give each one a score based on performance/ease of use/features/etc.

I hope that this helps.

Steve

[edDV]

I don't think anything under the GS400 has manual audio level controls at all. If you find one, let us know.

[slacker]

The Canon Optura 600 ($899) and Optura 500 ($799) both have manual audio level controls but do not allow the use of an external microphone.

[stantheman1976]

I don't think anything under the GS400 has manual audio level controls at all. If you find one, let us know.

So is there any way to change the level on the fly or to keep it from going past a chosen level? I though Automatic Gain Control was supposed to do that, but when I put it manual level with AGC it still goes too high. So what exactly is AGC for?

[edDV]

AGC is there to protect the clueless.

If you are serious about souund, you will hate the "pumping" that AGC creates. During quiet segments, AGC pumps up the noise because the designers thought "some sound is better than no sound".

If a car drives by or some other loud event happens, the AGC will lower level for a second or more causing nothing to be picked up. If they adjust AGC to be too sensitive, then every over word has gain ramping.

Those who use external mics want to have a steady audio level. Then you can fix it in post.

A little know talent of TV interviewers or singers is the ability to "ride gain" by varying handheld mic distance. Even the contestants on "American Idol" have been coached on that*.

*Inverse sqaure law rules. If you are going to sing 4x louder, then move the mic back 2x. Actually audio obeys the log10 curve but you get the point. Singers can "get" inverse square (aided by talent monitors) but log10 doesn't connect.

[stantheman1976]

So does it do any good on trying to record something like a church service where the music at the beginning and end will be loud, but the sermon will be much less?

[edDV]

So does it do any good on trying to record something like a church service where the music at the beginning and end will be loud, but the sermon will be much less?

Ride gain manually like any radio station. Watch a VU or peak meter.

[edDV]

The internet rocks!
You can find an FAQ on everything.

http://www.vocalist.org.uk/mic_technique.html
http://www.vocalist.org.uk/microphone_techniques.html
http://www.prorec.com/prorec/articles.nsf/files/F9E1A7CEF48EA8848625693D00826656