Recording camera help

[whitbey]

I want to get a go pro style camera to record my Dixie band and other music events for YouTube. I have questions that maybe someone here knows about.
I want pretty good sound and video just good enough for Youtube.
I don't know or care about the brand if something might be better match.
Older, used and cheaper is a good thing if will do the job.
I need soft ware to edit too. So I can grab one tune out of a full set to post. Also I want to convert to only audio.
I have an H2n Handy recorder I use a lot for practice. Not sure I want to use two things to do this. But the audio is good on the Handy.
Where is a good place to buy this thing?

Any ideas?

[harrisonreed]

The audio will not be good on a GoPro. If you already had both, I'd use both, and sync with a clap at the start.

Zoom makes two inexpensive dedicated video/audio recorders, however. That might fit the bill for you.

https://zoomcorp.com/en/us/video-recorders/

I believe you can even run two line-in's off the main board if you want to feed live mics in as a separate stereo audio channel.

[whitbey]

Thanks Harrison

That Zoom Q2n-4K looks good and sounds better. The H2n has been good for years to me.

[MStarke]

I would at least consider these Zoom devices:
https://www.thomann.de/de/zoom_zubehoer ... vices.html

Smartphone cameras are potentially good enough and combined with this Zoom device that could be a nice and lean solution.

[Richard3rd]

I do this all the time with an iPhone. We have a friend in the audience do it. I ask them to record as many songs as they can, each song with its own file. I have software on the phone to convert from wav. format to mp4 and that makes it easy to transfer to other sites. The sound is excellent as is the video.

[Mikebmiller]

For short video clips, a smartphone works great. If you want to shoot long events, you might look at a real video camera. I got into video a few years back and have spent way too much on cameras, but I love it.

Everything depends on your budget. You can spend a few hundred bucks or many thousands on video cameras. Most will let you plug in an external mic of some sort to improve the audio. If you have a grand to spend, a used Panasonic Lumix GH5 with the 12-60 lens is a great option.

[BurckhardtS]

Just want to add a note about the Zoom camera -

I have the Q2n-4k, and while it's great for reference recording it is NOT a good video camera. Unless I'm mistaken, there is no way to white balance or do noise reduction which means that if you are in anything that is less than perfectly lit you get tons of film grain and noise. Dark spots on a stage or the audience will fill with noise. It's reduceable in post but it never looks as good as a real camera. Also no real way to adjust the focus.

However, it is very convenient for just having something to throw up at a live event where I am not worried about making a production quality video or recording.



This video is a good example of the audio quality and video quality AFTER I went into Premiere and went crazy with the noise reduction.

[harrisonreed]

I mean, yeah, if you want something professional looking, you'll need 2-3 global shutter cameras on tripods with trained operators, large aperture primes, a sound crew with RME interfaces, Sequoia, and enough high quality mics to cover the ensemble. Preferably Neumanns.

....and three performances or dress rehearsals so you can edit a perfect take...

And a decent sounding venue. One that looks pretty.

Or you just pay $500 for something that sort of works to do it all. There are options in between, but it's a slippery slope!

I wonder about the white balance issue -- usually you do that in premiere after the fact. Do you think the noise was due to compression or was it due to 8-bit video and a large dynamic range in the shot? I didn't look at the video specs for that one.

You actually have to go pretty high spec to get rid of noise in the dark areas in HDR shots like the one you have in the example. Nowadays you would shoot 10 or 12 bit RAW or LOG footage, and then have to go in and do massive color correction to get everything to look like it was filmed on the same planet we are on. But when you lift the darks, there is a large window before noise creeps in.

[Mikebmiller]

I shot this with the aforementioned GH5 with a Tascam Portacapture X8 for external sound.

[url]

[BurckhardtS]

White balance and focus (and HDR to some extent) have been standard features on cameras for decades and pretty much standard features on smartphones since 2016. My point really was if the video quality is important, the Q2N might not be the pick, especially since the phone you have in your pocket will probably make a better video than the Q2n. It makes a perfect field recorder for me since it is so portable, so I like using it. Also it fits onto the standard tripod screw mount (forgot what the size is but it's the standard size)

The only bummer I've ran into with smartphone recording and syncing is that iPhones for some reason only record at variable frame rates. This means even if you sync the video and audio early on it will always end up slightly off after a few minutes.

Oh also... unless you have no access to power, ALWAYS run it off of AC power instead of the batteries. While recording that thing will eat through the 2 AA batteries in less than an hour and a half. I basically get through a set per charge.

I don't think the noise is compression because you can see it on the (albeit tiny) screen when you are setting the camera up.

[harrisonreed]

Must be low bit video that is the problem, then. 8bit 4K or something similar, and the camera must be automatically trying to compress the dynamic range of the image.

[whitbey]

I bought the Q2n-4k and like it a lot so far.

i have a Dixie gig next weekend for a little over an hour I plan to record.

I use the best sound quality. Wondering what video quality I should use. I plan on posting the video to Youtube ...just good enough.

The manual says:
Video resolution Alkaline LR6 (1.5 V) Ni-MH HR6 (1.2 V) Lithium FR6 (1.5 V)
720/30 p 2.0 hours 3.0 hours 6.0 hours
1080/30 p 1.2 hours 2.0 hours 4.0 hours
4K/30 p 0.5 hours 1.0 hours 2.0 hours

[Mikebmiller]

I bought the Q2n-4k and like it a lot so far.

i have a Dixie gig next weekend for a little over an hour I plan to record.

I use the best sound quality. Wondering what video quality I should use. I plan on posting the video to Youtube ...just good enough.

The manual says:
Video resolution Alkaline LR6 (1.5 V) Ni-MH HR6 (1.2 V) Lithium FR6 (1.5 V)
720/30 p 2.0 hours 3.0 hours 6.0 hours
1080/30 p 1.2 hours 2.0 hours 4.0 hours
4K/30 p 0.5 hours 1.0 hours 2.0 hours

I am a fan of recording in the highest quality my camera and storage space will allow. You can always render to a lower resolution.

[BoneRob]

<<I am a fan of recording in the highest quality my camera and storage space will allow. You can always render to a lower resolution.>>

I agree. That said, for this type of performance, the 1080/30 (standard High Definition) setting would be fine. No real need for the 4K setting. The 1080 files will be much easier to deal with in a video editor.

[Mikebmiller]

<<I am a fan of recording in the highest quality my camera and storage space will allow. You can always render to a lower resolution.>>

I agree. That said, for this type of performance, the 1080/30 (standard High Definition) setting would be fine. No real need for the 4K setting. The 1080 files will be much easier to deal with in a video editor.

Shooting in 4K lets you zoom in in post without losing as much detail. That is probably not an issue in this particular case, but I shoot a lot of concerts and like the flexibility.