Club lighting for video

[bouldersoundguy]

That brings up the question, what cameras are you using?

[keith.rogers]

That brings up the question, what cameras are you using?

Here it's a pair of Panasonic camcorders, HC-v750 and HC-v770. Under normal lighting they at least "see" colors about the same. Both acquired used but seem to be in perfect working order. I've tried using a couple Sony mirrorless cameras but they have a limited time they'll do video (30min!) which is problematic where I have to stick these things, and one of them (a6000) was prone to overheating during a full night and became useless for video (sold it). I still use the older one sometimes on a center table when I can - this night I was set up too close for it to work. I have some video from my iPhone, but none for these two songs. Adding a 3rd angle can help, but it also means a bit more color matching work, and the Panasonics do have decent low(ish) light capability, at least for the price.

[keith.rogers]

If the lights go out, how would they take to your putting in enough light back to fix the video problem?

Could you talk them into not killing the lights, or at least not ALL of them ? Or adding their own lights for just the stage?

I think I have seen LED lights that are small portable and cheap designed for photo use.
How cheap is cheap? How small ? How portable ? How much light eg LUMENS do you need?

Ideally, I could put the lights wherever I have to stick a camera, and that's often off to the side, and sometimes up on a temporary mount or shelf (it was a wine rack in these), so it's pretty inaccessible for the night. "Excuse me while I step in your bruschetta and kick over your expensive wine so I can re-aim my camcorder..."

Honestly, this was as good as it gets at that place right now. A week earlier they had the overhead LEDs on blue all night and aimed in front of the performers. They were knowing guinea pigs, though so happy I got anything, a few songs before the sun went down. At least this gig we picked something yellow-greenish instead of blue (or magenta), but they keep it very intimate inside.

So, I wish I knew how many lumens I needed. I just figured out I have to calculate that somehow, so I can then work back to distance, angles, watt-equivalency, whatever, and then see what's available. In general I'd have to assume my lighting will be at least 10-15 feet (3-5m) in many cases. AC power is usually available at one side or another, but not guaranteed, so I'd like battery powered if that's even a sane option, but having light that mitigates the problem would probably be the best, and if I see the light's a problem I can't address, I'll just decline in the future.

Budget is probably less than $200 and size is a concern. I'm packing everything in my Miata

P.S. I should probably have prefaced this whole thing by saying I do this for the audio experience, and I tell everyone that, but I say I'll set up cameras "and hope," though they are welcome to hire a videographer. They never do, of course. Doing videos singlehandedly and expecting a good outcome is borderline foolhardy, probably, but it's an interesting challenge, if nothing else.

[bouldersoundguy]

Here it's a pair of Panasonic camcorders, HC-v750 and HC-v770. Under normal lighting they at least "see" colors about the same.

It's really helpful to have cameras that have similar color profiles. It saves the hassle of matching them later. That's why I have four Sony camcorders.