Camcorders

[Sushi]

I am looking to get a camcorder to record my Toastmaster meetings (and, it is to be hoped, when I start my speech coaching business). I understand the sound can be a little sketchy. The room the recording will be taking place is approximately 50' x 50'. I can probably set up close to the stage.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[rhino]

Hey .. I was just looking today. I actually have one in another tab now.

But I want it to record wildlife that is 150 yards away. This one has a 40x zoom which is cool, but it is $300.

Amazon has pretty decent prices.

I guess you can even get high definition now ... but I didn't see any for my purpose, namely with the big optical zoom.

Here is a buying guide ...

[Sushi]

Thanks, Rhino, now I'm only a little less lost. As usual, I can't afford what I want.

[ChasUFarley]

I do videography for work and prefer the Sony Handycam over anything else I've worked with. There's little/no learning curve and you can pick up a refurbished one for around $150 that takes Mini-DV (tiny tapes). I don't care for the DVDs with the cams right now but probably will go HD storage someday. For now, the DV tapes can be re-used many times and I store the video on an external harddrive. Check eBay - just make sure you go with a reputable seller.

[Sushi]

Thanks, Chas. One thing I'm also wondering about is editing. How do you do that? I'm thinking perhaps people will want their speeches only and not necessarily the whole meeting.