I have a Canon zr45 miniDV but it does a terrible job when I try to videotape my daughter's dance recitals. It seems to poorly register or overcompensates for the bright stage lighting as well as the bright colors of the performers' costumes. I've played with the white balance and auto settings but still crappy, poor color saturation and detail, washed out results. Any recommendations for new camcorder OR what to adjust to capture better colors and detail?
I have recorded a few live shows with my new Sony DCR-HC42 DV camcorder and have had really great footage. It was a rock show, so there were many colors and weird lighting effects which made the camcorder really work hard, but it did a spectacular job.
^ For lighting i agree, the newer sony's also have an option for spot meter which you may want to utilize when taping your daughter.
I have taped my daughters dance recitals with excellent results, but only after I quickly recognized that the meter saw the black background and burned out the dancers. The Sony spot meter helped a lot, but more important, I filled the view finder with the dancers as much as possible. This allowed some very nice effects and I could see her face. But its incredibly tough to follow, but worth it. The minus AE shift was less succesful, because then even the close ups are darkened. Gotta have a sturdy tripod no matter what. Heilung
