What video camera from Best buy under 300$ that will record good quality of a garage band and guitar playing?

Question

Or if there is a better one at wal-mart/circuit city/ whatever that has good sound quality for recording loud guitar distortion noises/garage band practices that is under or near 300$, please post it here

Thanks :)

Answer 1

None.

In order to capture good audio recording, you need manual audio control. Loud audio will overdrive the camcorder's automatic audio level control circuit and the audio will clip and sound very muddy. The cheapest camcorders - of which I am aware - with manual audio control are the Canon HV20, HV30, Sony HDR-HC7 and HC9.

If you get the cheapest camcorder out there (like the Canon ZR800) then get a field recorder (like those from Zoom, Marantz, M-Audio, among others), and replace the audio captured on the camcorder with the controlled audio captured with the field recorder, that will work fine.

The Canon ZR800, 900 and 930 have mic in jacks, but no manual audio control. The Canon HV20, HV30, Sony HDR-HC7 and HC9 have both mic-in jacks and full manual audio control.

Some Sony cameras used to have a "Low" mic gain setting to take care of loud noise environments, but I don't think they carry that feature any more.