Pianophilia

Can someone please recommend a camcorder ($500 or less) for recording piano performances (recitals, etc.)? I'd like to find something that would yield a recording decent enough to post on youtube. It would also be nice if I could use it to record passable audition DVDs.

I use a Sony HD which was not very cheap 2 years ago (about 1300 euros) . You must choose a HD camera with a good zoom (the very cheap HD that are now on the market - like CAMILEO - don't have zoom at all). But the most difficult feature to find is a good sound quality : my Sony records at 320 kbps mp3, and the sound is acceptable.
I don't think that PCM (wav) quality videocam exist at all, apart the very big professional machines.

passthesalt wrote:Can someone please recommend a camcorder ($500 or less) for recording piano performances (recitals, etc.)? I'd like to find something that would yield a recording decent enough to post on youtube. It would also be nice if I could use it to record passable audition DVDs.

I have a Sony handycam DCR-SR37E that cost me 269 euros which I use for recording my soprano in song recitals and the picture quality as well as the sound quality are more than acceptable for youtube and I would think auditions too.
We plan to record her for a website later in the year as well as for uploading to Youtube. She has written a book about the old historical Italian Singing method, (a method which no current singer on the world stage uses) in order to make that method more accessible to people used to bellowing and screaming and who want to return to the Gentle Art as Sir Henry Wood called it. The book should be in print early next year. So posting on Youtube and a new website will be as a visual aid for the book.
Hope the info is of some use, by the way even a 1 year old child could use the camera, it is so easy.
regards
Brian

Thanks, Brian and Caprotti. I'm going to investigate the Sonys you both recommended. Sounds like exactly what I need - nothing fancy or crazy hard to use, but acceptable.

I know that everyday camcorders generally don't have great sound, but I just don't have time to get into the technical side of recording (using external microphones, etc.) and as an amateur, I can't justify getting too fancy about this.