Video camera or camera and sound recorder

[backofbeyond]

As Tim mentioned it's a whole load of work to marry the sound and vision at the editing stage, particularly getting the timing right. That's where the guy with the clapperboard you saw in old movies came from - at least you'd have a fixed start point.

The up side with recording sound separately is that you can get much better sound quality - something that's lacking with a lot of "enthusiast" videos and why people often just strip the sound out altogether and put rock music or something in instead. Half decent sound recorders are not that expensive (compared to the cameras anyway) and I had a list of a few that were recommended when I did a course last year but, as always, I can't find it when I need it.

Having to carry and set up separate sound equipment as well as a camera is a step too far for me at the moment. Fine if the purpose of the trip is to document it - like a tv crew, but if it's a trip first - and particularly if you're travelling with others who may not share your "passion" - it can get very complicated and time consuming if you have to consider vision and sound needs separately every time you want to record something.

My half way house atm is to use a camera (I'm using a DSLR) that can take a separate plug in mike as often it's the microphone rather than the sound recording electronics that lets many cameras down. I've not done enough with that set-up yet to have a feel for what I'm doing right / wrong but so far the sound side seems to be a lot better. At least the two start off in sync.