Best Camcorder for Robot Fighting

Team Ironclads

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Hello
        I am the captain of a fighting robot team based in the UK. I go to multiple live events across the country, where I compete and record the fighting that takes place.
Currently, I use an iPad Air to record said events but I'm looking to upgrade to a dedicated camcorder. However, I am no expert in this field and would appreciate advice on the matter.

Description Of Videos
The fights usually start with the arena in near darkness, with only one or two lights (sometimes colored). When "activate" is called, the arena is completely lit up. The robots are usually fast-moving and unpredictable in their movement, so I often have to pan the camera around to follow the fight.
The arena will have a layer or two of translucent polycarbonate between the arena and onlookers (Drivers, audience members, carmen, etc) which often have scratches and smudges on them. I often have to continually adjust focus on the iPad as it will autofocus on polycarbonate. A When the heavyweights' fight it often causes the arena to shake.

Below is a link to a playlist of the sort of videos I record from a recent event.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Robots Live Stevenage 2019 - YouTube                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        www.youtube.com                                                                               
Look forward to hearing from you

Emerton

You will need a camcorder with manual focus. You zoom in to the maximum point that you want to focus on and the whole depth of field should be in focus (except very close-up). Buy a named brand (Sony/Canon/Panasonic), the quality control of the cheap ones is non-existant and it is pot luck whether it works at all (yes, they really are that bad). Terfyn will fill you in on the advantages over USB power and using a powerbank. I am not up to speed on the latest models.

Terfyn

I can only speak about Panasonic cameras as I am out of touch with Canon and Sony but they are all very similar. The Panasonic HC-V800 is the latest HD consumer camcorder, It has a Leica lens and a decent size chip so (is claimed) performs well in low light situations. (but I expect your arena is well lit)
The USB mentioned by Emerton is that the Panasonic cameras are recharged and can be run from a USB 5V supply. I use an AUKEY powerbank of 20,000 mAh which will run the camera for up to 12 hours before it needs recharging.
There is manual control as well as auto so the advice from Emerton should be quite possible.
Any other help, please ask.

12harry

What OP describes needs a professional team and slick editing - unless it's for "Own-Use" to track where their robot failed.... Fast action could be an issue, but if the lighting is good and there are too many reflections then auto exposure will capture the action. The greater issue is that you'll need a competent operator who can zoom-in to the action -
IMHO a constant wide-view won't give enough detail - but using a GoPro ( or cheaper equivalent) does give you a back-up with its ultra-wide FOV.
If it's within the RULES, you could attach a cheap camera to the robot ( like a car dash-cam ), giving you details of the interaction.... but close-focus may need a supplementary lens - as well as some resilient mounting to reduce movement. You can get metal housings for Action cameras and these appear to accept a close-up lens  say for action within 12" and slightly further out of contact.

Good Luck.

Team Ironclads

Thank you all for the advice

I got a Panasonic HC-V800 and took it to an event last weekend. Its gonna take me a while to get use to the controls but the quilty of the footage gained is a big step up from the iPad air.
Attached is a video from said footage

Terfyn

Was this recorded on the iA setting? I  thought it coped pretty well with the difficult conditions. Did you use an editor to enhance the pictures?
As others will not tire of telling you,I am a bit of a Panasonic nut. But in my experience the footage shown would benefit from being enhanced in a video editor. For example, as the camera was setting itself for the average illumination, some of the areas to the edge of the rink were quite dark. I would expect that if you "lifted" the footage brightness slightly, those areas would reveal much more detail.
Anyway I am cheered that you are happy with the results from the 800. You could try experimenting with the iA  setting to give better lighting control and the Slow-Motion option could prove useful.

You may also consider purchasing a 62mm 0.43x Wide Angle Add On Lens (screws into the threads on the camera front) to widen your field of view (roughly twice as wide). The zoom still works perfectly through it and it may give you a better framing for the picture as you are so close to the arena.

Thanks for the video.

Team Ironclads

it is the pure footage and was on manual setting

I will give iA  a go

Terfyn

I usually leave the camera in iA mode i.e. fully automatic. Again it is worth experimenting with both modes. I suppose it is whether I feel that I know better or the camera knows better, in most cases the camera wins.
As mentioned before I use the facilities in the video editor to improve the picture. It amazes me that the camera records so much detail in the dark areas. An area that, in the raw video, looks completely dark reveals so much when the brightness is increased. Clearly this can "burn out" the brighter parts of the picture if overdone but, as is often the case, as the whole picture area is dull, lifting the brightness usually improves the full picture. My experience with this technique resulted from Halloween events which, by their nature, are dimly lit and I have also successfully recorded an eclipse of the moon.
Incidentally I have also used the Time Lapse and Slow-motion options, on the camera, a number of times and find them quite useful.

You probably have a favourite video editor. I use Corel's VideoStudio Ultimate 2019 ('cos it's simple) and find that with HD it will do most of what I want.