Well, the easiest option, which a comedian I work with sometimes uses, is to just hit voice memo on his phone and drop it in his pocket. That gets the most important stuff, what his delivery sounds like and how the audience responds.

The next question is do you want to record yourself, or the audience, or both at the same time? The contrast is usually massive, with the stage being blinding bright and the audience being pitch black, so for most cheap cameras you have to pick one.

One option to consider is if you can get a line out from the house mixer, or just give them a card/drive to record to. That would give you the best audio of you, and then your recorder can get the audience noise.


Another thing to consider is that by the very nature of the event you won't be able to monitor the camera, and probably nobody else will either. You probably won't even be able to see it due to the lights, so it might walk away and you have no idea until the end of your set.

Something like a $200-$400 camcorder is probably going to be the best option here. Set it and forget it, and if it goes for a walk you're not going to be financially crippled.

Keep an eye on Amazon Goldbox as well as used sites like BHPhoto. They often have pretty decent discounts.
This is the Canadian site but this Canon camcorder is 30% off. https://www.amazon.ca/gp/aw/d/B019UDIL80/

Stuff like this comes up as a Lightning deal every few weeks it looks like. If you keep your eye out you can get a pretty good deal.

You can get a Canon VIXIA HF R700 for under $200 to do video with.

The best you're going to do at $500 (but still see significantly improved picture quality) is probably a $200-ish consumer grade camera and the rest on a capture device. for HDMI to USB3, I've used this one many times and it works well:

https://www.amazon.com/Magewell-XI100DUSB-Video-Capture-Dongle/dp/B00I16VQOY

But that doesn't leave much room to play for a camera and stay around $500. For consumer cameras I like the picture quality of the Canon Vixia line, but Sony, Panasonic, etc. have similar consumer cameras at similar prices. Here's one that fits the budget:

https://www.amazon.com/Canon-VIXIA-R700-Camcorder-Black/dp/B019UDIL80/

This one even has a mic jack, which is a nice plus.

You might be able to save even more on the capture device by getting something like one of the Blackmagic decklink capture cards, if you have a desktop to put it in. Still, you're only going to save $15-$25 or so.

If you can put your budget into the $1,500-$2,000 then you could move up to a true prosumer camera or even a professional camera if you buy used. A used Panasonic HMC-150 should be going for about $1-$1.5k on ebay. You'd really see a jump up to pro looking video at that point.

Well the Canon VIXIA HF R700 does record at 1080p 60fps an it's $298 on amazon. i'ts a camcorder so i think is enough portable for you.

I just found this monster- it looks pretty close to what im looking for in specs. I just wish it had the zebra filter like the GL1 i fondly remember using back in my voc tech days. :(

https://www.amazon.com/Canon-VIXIA-R700-Camcorder-Black/dp/B019UDIL80/ref=sr_1_3?s=photo&ie=UTF8&qid=1474640304&sr=1-3&keywords=Canon%2BVixia%2BHF%2BR600&th=1

If you just need video here are a couple decent camcorders"

Sony

Canon R700

If you want a little more versatility you can look around ebay at some cheap dslrs, The T2i is around your price frame and can do video and photo.

I recently scored a Canon Vixia HF R700 due to some great advice in this sub a few months ago. Since then I've used it in multiple situations including at Indiana Comic Con 2017 and GenCon 2017. Here's a picture of the setup I use. Since then I think the next generation Canon Vixia HF R800 is the one that's available. Good luck! And if you find something else let me know. I'm always interested in upgrading gear if it's the right thing to do.

for my wife to make a fitness/whatever blog...actually I think I found something even better: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B019UDIL80/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER

She's pretty busy so I'd be willing to get her an upgrade eventually if she actually sticks with it ;)

I was thinking maybe something like this: https://www.amazon.com/Canon-VIXIA-R700-Camcorder-Black/dp/B019UDIL80 ??

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