I'm in search of a very portable and easy-to-use rig to video record my own piano ( solo piano or chamber music concerts). Sorry in advance for the long post but I'd like to clear my confused ideas....
What I need is portability and ease of use, but a minimum of quality is not negotiable as I need some material for self-promotion. Not a pro quality ( i.e. 2 or 3 camcorders etc...), but good sound and clear video even from a single shooting point.
I am very tempted by a small portable solution like Olympus ls20m, but I am a bit concerned about a couple of aspects, about which I ask for your opinion:
A) low light. The typical classical concert situation is dark in the audience and well lightened on the stage: placing the camera on the edge of the stage would mean "low light" or not?
I've watched some videos captured with this Olympus; some classical videos are not bad but they have mostly been shot in complete light, while pop-jazz stage footage quality is not good for my needs. I really want something better than Iphone-like quality, and have no idea about the actual-life LS20 performance,
B)Audio quality. I'm used to an Edirol r09hr which, despite being consumer gear, accepts a hot line signal from an external preamp. I run it with a littlebox without any issue. R09hr has a nominal +2db and can take as hot as 24, while Olympus is -6db ( Zoom q3 hd is not any better) and I'm afraid I risk to overload the input.
The only reason for me to buy an Olympus is just to avoid to record separately audio and video; if it doesn't accept an external preamp it not worth getting it.
If you think the Olympus wouldn't suit my needs in terms of video quality or audio line input performance quality, then I'll have to look for a separate video solution, to sync with audio in post.
Do you have any advice in the price range, or even a little bit more expensive which could run for a long time with a AC adapter? Cameras often can take very good hd video, but I don't have the possibility to start a new file every 15 or 20 minutes due to file limitation as I'm on the stage playing! A camcorder might be the solution....?
Thank you for your advice
c