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General discussion

best camcorder for counselor supervision

Nov 15, 2010 8:32AM PST

We train graduate counseling students and record their counseling sessions (with permission) for supervision. We need something that offers a minimum of two hours for one session, has video clear enough to see subtleties of facial expression and audio good enough to pick up soft conversation despite some outside noise. Also, it needs to have a wide enough angle lens to pick up two people sitting on opposite sides of a small table while positioned within a small office. We have used a number of mini-dvd camcorders and they have a tendency to break after only a year or so of use. Because we also need to lock up the recordings at night to ensure confidentiality, the idea of something that records directly to an external portable drive would be ideal. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

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