Cheap camera for filming a band?

JoshL

JoshL

My girlfriend and I played our first show in about three years together on Sunday at a friend's annual Celtic festival. The reception was astounding (better than anything live I've EVER gotten), and we're going to pursue this project further. My friend had filmed the whole thing, but said the audio came out pretty bad so probably isn't going to put it online. We're still waiting to see it, and it occured to me that we should probably get something to film ourselves.

In the long term, it would be nice to have something to film shows, so we can watch afterwards. It's mostly a learning tool for us, but it would be nice to have something to toss up on youtube afterwards. Either way, it doesn't have to be anywhere near as fancy as anything people here are using! Checking Sweetwater, I see there's an Alesis and a couple Zooms. The Alesis VideoTrack is pretty cheap ($150) but getting mixed reviews on the site. It's also SD, though I think that matters less for live band shots than for a film. I've gotten good mileage out of Alesis gear in the past though. The Zoom Q3 is a little more ($200, or $300 for HD) and getting better reviews, though all the Zoom gear I've had in the past has been of questionable reliability (maybe they're better these days; lots of people seem to be using them).

Has anyone had experience with either of these? Anything else I should be looking into? We're probably not going to be gigging on a regular basis until early next year, so we have a while. We arranged three traditional songs for this show (synths, lap dulcimer, electric violin, electric 12 string and vocals), and have a list of traditional and original songs we want to work up, and won't be gigging until we have at least an hour's worth of material to play live. Anyway, any advice, as always is welcome!
 
Sort by date Sort by votes
It's MUSIC, so the AUDIO is what is most important. If the audio sounds great people won't care if the visuals were captured on a cell phone. Get a decent audio recorder and either A) patch into the mixing console or B) set up a pair of (matched) mics [or the recorder if the mics are built into the recorder] at the "sweet spot" of the venue or C) do both. You can match the good audio up with the camera sound in post.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Do you already have a camera?? If so then you could buy one of these
Tascam DR-05 Solid State Recorder $84.99 at amazom or there are cheaper zoom's ..all you would need to do is sync the audio up in post....
but im just learning about audio on the doc and filmmaking side so i could be wrong about the quality of the gear...
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Yeah, no camera at all here. I do want to get something that's of reasonable quality (and sound on camera more important for getting crowd noise, etc).

Audio won't be a problem for shows; I've got plenty of gear there. Would have (and SHOULD HAVE) recorded myself the other night, but I figured that my friend usually gets pretty good recordings, and first show insecurities ("is this even WORTH recording?" "will anyone but me even like it?" "how will an older crowd come to see acoustic traditional music even react to something more electronic?" etc, etc, etc).
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
JoshL said:
Yeah, no camera at all here. I do want to get something that's of reasonable quality (and sound on camera more important for getting crowd noise, etc).

Audio won't be a problem for shows; I've got plenty of gear there. Would have (and SHOULD HAVE) recorded myself the other night, but I figured that my friend usually gets pretty good recordings, and first show insecurities ("is this even WORTH recording?" "will anyone but me even like it?" "how will an older crowd come to see acoustic traditional music even react to something more electronic?" etc, etc, etc).
Click to expand...

ok now i understand! (i was wondering why a band would not have audio recording devices..LOL)

not sure what your budget is
Sony a (alpha) SLT-A33L Digital SLR Camera with Sony DT 18-55mm lens $500
you cant controll exposure , iso and such while filming....but it is a nice camera for your needs. I have held this camera and it has nice construction and has a good semi heavy feel to it, and its a sony, good quality and a nice choice of lenses.

But i would use your audio equipment....you more likely have professional grade units, and the audio is the most important thing.!!! yeah almost any camera will do!!!!! .... but if you are looking for a decent camera that wont break the bank start off with the sony.
 
Last edited:
Upvote 0 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top