Is the canon hfr806 camcorder still a good purchase for recording church services and YouTube vlogs?

The canon hfr806 (part of the VIXIA line) is an incredible entry level camcorder that has served countless small churches and YouTubers perfectly. While it is an older model it shoots exceptionally crisp 1080p Full HD video at 60 frames per second. Its biggest advantage over a smartphone is optical zoom. It features a staggering 57x advanced zoom. For a church setup this means you can mount the camera at the very back of the auditorium near the sound desk and zoom all the way in to capture a tight clear shot of the pastors face without losing any video quality or pixelating like a digital phone zoom would. It is the perfect tool for capturing long sermons because it does not overheat after 30 minutes like DSLR cameras do.

To address your specific technical requirements: Yes the canon hfr806 features a clean mini HDMI output. This is crucial for your media department. You can run a mini HDMI to standard HDMI cable directly from the camera into a capture card (like an Elgato or a cheap generic USB capture card) and straight into your laptop running OBS Studio. The camera sends a clean video feed without any battery icons or menus showing on screen making your live stream look highly professional. However its weakness is dim lighting. Because it has a relatively small 1/4.85 inch sensor the autofocus will struggle and hunt for focus if your church altar is poorly lit. You must ensure your stage is brightly illuminated with good LED spotlights for the camera to perform flawlessly.

Our church used this exact camera for two years before upgrading to PTZ cameras. It is a workhorse. It runs on wall power continuously so you do not have to worry about batteries dying in the middle of a 3 hour service.

The built in microphone is actually quite decent but for a professional church stream you should never use camera audio. Run an aux cable directly from your audio mixing console into the laptops mic input on OBS for crystal clear sound.

If you are buying it used check the lens carefully for scratches or fungus (small white web looking spots inside the glass caused by humidity). If the lens has fungus the video will always look blurry and foggy.