Recorded some concert footage with a camcorder on the 'night' setting but everything is jerky and distorted?

Question

Not that I don't like the footage, the other alternative was total darkness, but is that standard for the footage to distort movement like that. I was the videographer for this one in a small venue so the bands might not be able use the footage. Although it's really trippy stuff.

Answer 1

All camcorders need a lot of light to produce a good image, but especially so for consumer models due to their tiny image chips. When it comes down to shooting in very low light situations, the manufacturers have included the "night" or other similarly named setting that overrides the shutter speed (slowing it down) in order to allow more light to enter the iris.

Video is captured at 30 frames per second. In normal modes, camcorders won't go below 1/60 or 1/30 shutter speed so that the captured image is being refreshed at least once per frame, and therefore producing acceptable captured motion. When you slow the shutter speed below that rate (1/15, 1/8, 1/4), you increase the exposure time across multiple frames which produces the "jerky and distorted" images.

Answer 2

What is the make and model of the camcorder??