manual audio control. Even acoustic classical music can be loud enough to over-drive most consumer cams' auto-audio-gain.
In your price range, the only ones I can come up with are not exactly "traditional" camcorders.
Alesis VideoTrack
Zoom Q3 and Q3HD
If you go this route, be sure to use LOTS of light when recording video.
And while you might be "going solo", there are ways to make it interesting. One easy way is to play though the piece several times and using the best audio. THEN play the piece several times using different camera positions. With a decent video editor (Sony Vegas for Windows; Final Cut Express for Macintosh) you can easily sync the different audio and video tracks, mute the audio tracks you don't want and transition between the various video "scenes".
Hi, I'm new to shopping for a camcorder, have never owned one. I want to make informal recordings of my piano music (classical) for youtube - high quality but not professional, nothing fancy. I know I want:
- external mic capable
- tripod capable
- easily transfer file to computer
- under $500
- good quality sound
- video quality less important, but decent
That's all I know of that I want. This is solo - I'll be setting the video on, then sitting down to play.

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