Will close-range gunfire concussions damage my video camera?

Question

A local police force has asked me to video a live fire demonstration for training purposes. I am afraid to do this before adequately protecting my camera or being assured that the concussions will not damage it.

The camera manufacturer's response in both chat and on phone was unhelpful as they were unable to understand that I was concerned about damage from the concussion of guns shooting. They locked onto the word "fire" in my question and informed me I should be able to "record the fire so as you don't get too close and the temperature exceeds 60 Celsius."

Answer 1

Your camera gear should be fine... watch the audio, though, you want to be sure that the loud noise does not cause clipping. So manual audio mode is a must. If you don't have manual audio control, the resulting audio clipping will not damage the camcorder - it just won't sound very good and you probably already know that you cannot fix loud, clipped, muddy, audio in post production...

Answer 2

I've video taped all sorts of gun fire.  Rifle,  Pistol, shotgun, muzzle loaders of assorted calibers and muzzle loading artillery.   Never a problem...unless you drop the camera or it falls off the tripod from concussion waves.

Answer 3

No.  just your ears !

Answer 4

If you have good quality cameras then there should be no problem at all.  If your camera has an automatic sound level control then be sure to use it.  

I have no idea about cheap cameras.  

My Panasonic has withstood huge fireworks very close to it.

Answer 5

You'd have to be very,very close to the gun itself. Like two inches from the barrel. Even then I doubt it.