suggestions for a video camera?

Hello,

I need a few suggestions for a video camera, HD or non-HD that will be used to take video of people demoing musical instruments such as pianos, accordions, guitars, drums and so on. I understand I'll need an external mic. so any suggestions for both a video camera and ext. mic. would be awesome.

The videos would be converted into a suitable format such as FLV so that they could be put on a website and then a link sent to customers.

I'd like to start with the highest quality though, and our budget is around $1000.

Thanks for any help.

<a href="http://forums.photographyreview.com/showthread.php?t=11577">This Link</a> might be helpful when trying to understand all of the technologies that are available. I am guessing that sound quality is going to be important to you, so you either need a way to record sound externally and sync it in the editing process (a clapper board will work just fine) or a camera with very clear sound recording capabilities. that puts you in the semi pro market. something with a good mic and manual control over volume levels (gain) since the end result is a web grade video hd will be overkill, so you can save a few $$ by looking at higher end standard definition cameras. something with 3ccds would be preferable and most cameras that have good audio and audio controls will be 3ccd.

Alright, that helps. Now I guess Mini DV is the way to go possibly. What semi-pro. camera has decent audio capabilities and/or has good audio plugins for an external mic. I'm not to fond of having to sync audio to video, so I'd like to stray away from that.

Thanks.

Well, another option is the Canon HG10. High quality AVCHD recording which, external microphone, solid audio. And in HiDef too. Which isn't bad because you can downconvert to SD if you need to and still keep the original HD source video for when you're ready for it. Editing can be directly with an editor like Pinnacle Movie Studio 12 or you can output it through Picture Motion Browser's export utility.

On the miniDV side, I'd go with the Canon HV30. many of the same feaures in a miniDV package.