Guides - Canon Camcorders for Business

Guides

Alex Parker 
5th January 2023

DIY - Canon camcorders for business

It’s a new year, and many of us will be coming back to work with new priorities and a list of things we want to achieve in 2023. For small businesses, growth and exposure will be high on the list of desires, and video content will play a crucial role in this. As marketing material, nothing is more engaging, and there comes a point when a lack of flashy, moving pictures starts to make your brand look stuck in the past.

Many will turn to an agency or professional outfit to provide kit and shoot video content for them but taking control of your own image and embracing a DIY attitude can reap its own rewards, saving a significant amount of money in the process. From company announcements and interviews with clients to internal L&D material, event recording and general comms, video is fast becoming a requirement, rather than an optional extra.

The path of least resistance

If you’re interested in creating your own content but have limited shooting experience, hiring is the perfect way to test kit before making an expensive purchase. There are a horde of options when it comes to cameras, but if you haven’t done a great deal of video shooting before, it’s a good idea to simplify your setup and hire kit that just works.

Step forward Canon’s impressive range of camcorders. The beauty of these is that they’re specifically designed for video and feature fixed lenses. You won’t need to navigate photography menus, and you don’t need to choose from hundreds of detachable lenses. Camcorders have sensors designed specifically for video, excelling in changeable lighting situations, and offering powerful optical zoom too.

They also offer multiple microphone inputs as standard, so you won’t be scrabbling around looking for a way to record professional audio. Each camera comes with a shotgun mic to sit on the handle above the unit, and XLR inputs provide a straightforward way to attach lapel mics for pieces to camera and interviews.

Click below to see our full range of Canon camcorders:

 

The extra bits

With your camera and audio ticked off, you may want to investigate a few extras to complete your setup:

Memory cards

We hire our cameras with memory cards included as standard, so you won’t need to hire these separately unless you’re planning a long shoot. Each camera page features an Accessories page so you can see which cards are compatible without hunting through spec sheets.

Tripods

A tripod will be a necessity, offering stability for 'pieces to camera' and smooth panning options for establishing shots. With this in mind, a tripod with a video head will be a must, as these are designed specifically for buttery smooth operation, when moving your camcorder's field of view.

Microphones

As mentioned, your camcorder will come with a shotgun mic which can be attached to the handle, providing a great audio recording option on-camera. For any sound you want to capture some distance from the camera, you will need a mic closer to your subject. The most popular choice when recording speech is a wireless lapel mic kit. These clip on to your subject and plug into a transmitter pack hidden about their person. The transmitter sends to a receiver unit which you can plug into your camcorder, et voila, crisp, professional sound!

As an alternative to this, you could get a small table stand and mount the shotgun mic on that. Just bear in mind that the microphone won’t be shock-absorbed in any way, so if anybody knocks or touches the table you’ve positioned the mic on, the mic is likely to pick it up. With the above in mind, you wouldn’t want to hold this microphone with your bare hands either, though we have alternative options for this very purpose.

Headphones

Easy to overlook, headphones are crucial when setting the levels of your microphones, making sure that they aren't clipping. If you’re using multiple mics, monitoring these feeds and adjusting levels at time of recording will help when you come to editing your recordings in post.

Lighting

Probably the most ambiguous part of a DIY shoot, lighting can make or break your production, but it’s tough to know exactly what you need and where to spend your money. Plenty of this will come down to the setting in which you intend to shoot, but at the very least you will want a bright light you can use to illuminate your subject.

Known as a key light, a powerful spotlight somewhere in front of your subject helps light them properly and can also help the overall quality of light in your scene. For example, in a brightly lit office with a window to the left of your subject, a key light at a 45-degree angle to the front right of your subject can help prevent any harsh contrast and dark shadows, balancing the scene and making for pleasing footage.

Thankfully, advances in LED technology means it’s far easier and cheaper to get your hands on lightweight, reliable, and easy-to-use lights, meaning there’s no real excuse for poorly lit scenes!

 

In Conclusion

Whilst there’s no substitute for expertise, and there are times when you need to get the professionals in, you might be surprised what your business can achieve in-house. The beauty of hiring rather than purchasing is that you can try video with the smallest of outlays in comparison to taking on an agency and the fees which come with that.

You’ll be hard-pressed to find a more low-risk way of taking your brand to the next level in 2023, so why not start as you mean to go on? We've included a selection of our most popular camcorders below - click through to check availability and hire today!