<p>Of course we know it is often illegal to film our children in copyright plays, but does anyone know of a good mini camera to videotape other "allowed" stage performances?</p>
<p>I am looking for something simple and small... preferable the mini size, because my filming skills are weak.</p>
<p>My flip nano and phone video are awful because the stage light is usually so bright that you can't make out any performers.</p>
<p>Is there a camera brand that anyone has had success with, or even a technique to reduce the bright stage light?</p>
<p>IF you are interested in following the letter of the law, Then virtually no recording of any performances are allowed. Unless you have permission from the music composer and the musicians (even from a recording) you should not recordings. People do, and rights folks do not get too upset with it as long as you are not making a profit or promoting yourself or any group with their music.</p>
<p>Yes, I get that. I also get that a lot of performers don’t want just anyone putting their performances on youtube when they might not be happy with specifics about that performance. </p>
<p>The better the artist, the more particular they become. Rightly so.</p>
<p>Unfortunately it is hard to stop strangers form doing just that. I am distressed with the lack of control our children have and will have over their images etc from this internet age.</p>
<p>All I want is a good recording for my family memories. Everything from past performances is light whited out… but my son’s rugby games are clear as can be.</p>
<p>Without getting into the question of whether videotaping is permissible, I can tell you that the simplest way to overcome the technical problem you’re describing is to zoom into the scene. If you try to capture the entire stage, the range of light intensity is too large for any consumer camcorder to handle. When you zoom in, however, even though the lighting on one or two or three people is bright, the range is narrow enough for the camera to be able to accurately see faces. </p>
<p>Ahh well then that explains it. I use those tiny cameras that only have a 2X zoom and can’t get in too far. The bigger cameras are not as portable/easy etc but I guess there is a trade off. </p>
<p>There are cameras the size of a can of soda that use memory cards or hard drives as the recording media and that have excellent optical zoom. Sony makes SD and HD models with as much as 30x optical zoom that start in the low $200 range. One model, an SD model, has a 60 gig hard drive and a 30x optical zoom for under $300. While video “snobs” sneer at SD as opposed to HD, the SD models really work pretty well and have good resolution.</p>