Camcorder suggestion

[nananner]

During the summer and fall months I take pictures of a lot live stage performances my friends partake in. After last fall I started thinking about getting a camcorder preferably with continuous autofocus? Like something I could have mounted to my tripod while I stand there with one of my other cameras capturing stills. In October I used my Pentax K5 dslr to film a couple outdoor shows, It didn't do too bad, I also now own a Canon 6d I've purchased since then but have yet to really play with the video feature. Apart from the focusing issue on my Pentax I am not a huge fan of recording time restrictions where you stop and quickly restart the camera. Can anyone help? I prefer Canon brand if possible.

[Tim · Accepted solution]

Hello Nananner,

Since you're looking for a camcorder which can be tripod mounted, set to record more or less unmanned and without traditional time restrictions that shooting with DSLR's impose; then the VIXIA HF R40 is the one we recommend. 

It has a 53x Advanced Zoom, Super Range Optical Image Stabilizer and Face Detection.  The Face Detection mode specifically caters to your need by allowing the camcorder to track up to 35 faces automatically.  In addition, a specific face can be picked to be used as the main subject face to use for tracking.   

Based on these parameters, we believe this would be a great camcorder that should fit the bill nicely.  If you'd like to visit the main page for the VIXIA HF40, I've provided a link here.  There are, of course, many other great features built in that enhance the usability of the camcorder, however we did want to address your main needs first.  This model is also quite reasonably priced, ESRP is $349.99, as indicated on the main Canon site linked above.