Can I attach a microphone to this Samsung Sports Camcorder?

Thanks Kees - (an interesting looking site, btw)

But b*gger - it looks like there is no mention whatsoever of an external microphone slot. DAMN.

What it does have is an External Camera, and THAT does have a microphone. However when you turn it on both the external camera and the external microphone both come on at once at that same time. So the mic is in the same place as the camera lens - thus defeating the whole point of us getting an external microphone!!

Unless I do something REALLY drastic it looks like I'm going to be forced to buy a whole new camcorder. B*gger.

Any suggestions?

* * *

Let me give you the background as to what we are trying to do...

My client is an e-commerce website, and because the site uses a rather quirky selling mechanism, we are trying to create a video to put on the website that explains how the site actually works.

Regarding quality, because it will be hosted on the web (possibly via youtube.com [or similar]) there is obviously no need for ultra high resolution.
Basically we want the video to look 'competant' - i.e. 'good quality' - but on the other hand we definitely do NOT want it to look like it came out of a professional studio - just competant that's all.

Although we have almost zero budget for this project - but it seems clear that we'll need an external mike in order to get half decent sound. And it would appear to be a false economy not to just buy a camcorder (or nice camera that does both?)

If so, what sort of money would we need to spend do you think?
GBP 100? 200?

(I am a total newbie at this video stuff...)

Cheers

From my research the Panasonic SDR-S26 looks quite promising (about

Well, just a week ago I bought the Canon FS200 as a present for my daughters graduation. That's the top league in SD video. It DOES have a connection for external microphone. But it's more expensive then the 2 camcorders you mention.

Let me mention alternatives:
1. Don't use a video camera. Use a screen capture program.
2. Any decent movie editor will allow you to add a soundtrack (music) to an existing movie. So just make the movie or screen capture, then afterwards add the sound.
3. Use Flash.

Kees

> That's the top league in SD video.

As a total video newbie, to clarify:

"SD video" = "Standard Definition video" = the normal definition for TV, yes? (but not HDTV).

On YouTube I notice that they now recommend
Resolution: "1280 x 720 (16 x 9 HD) and 640 x 480 (4:3 SD)"
Codec: "H.264, MPEG-2 or MPEG-4 preferred."

(See: http://www.google.com/support/youtube/bin/answer.py?answer=132460&cbid=-1tqxkpj4nkifz&src=cb&lev=index )

Do this means that for best results, we I guess we should ideally be using "1280 x 720" resolution (i.e. "720p"), which is what our existing Samsung Sports Camcorder (model:VP-X220L) can already do.

they offer for viewing? I doubt it.

Kees

thanks for the PDF. I was scanning through looking for something different but the PDF will help revive interest in a machine that lies unused at home.