Thanks for the question. In every school I have worked at we have always had low-end video cameras, and usually no mics. My favorite brand for low-end cameras with good built-in mics is Sony. My students have been able to get good sound with them. If you can spend a little money I would recommend a shotgun mic that you can mount on your camera. I have not used them but have been told by colleagues that this will significantly increase the sound quality. If you are shooting a news or an interview show you might want to think about a wireless lapel mic. Also, I have used a low-end hand-held mic on a low-end Canon camera and it worked quite well. We got very good sound, and it also looks professional when doing an interview. When using any of these I would also recommend that the cameraperson use headphones while shooting in order to get a better idea of the actual sound quality. Please contact me if you have any other questions.

Steve

I’m a voc teacher who specializes in web design and office applications. Recently I have found the need to have my students create some very basic videos using Imovie to import into our websites. I’m having trouble deciding what kind of video camera to pick up for my class. We are currently using some cheap Aiptek cameras which do fine for video but the sound quality is horrible. I would like some recommendations for a good overall camera which we can hook up external mics. I’m not worried about all the bells and whistles as I will use Imovie for the editing. I would like to purchase a couple, I really don’t want to spend over $300 per camera and less would be even better. Any ideas?

Thank You

Lee Grams