DSLR Audio

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zoom-h1-recorder

I've been using the Zoom H1 and Tascam DR-08 as 'body packs' instead of using a Wireless setup. I'm still using the old Audio Technica ATR-3350 Lavalier Microphone setup, and I have to say that i'm quite happy with the workflow. You just can't beat this combination for the price and speed in getting things setup. For more demanding audio, of course I have a different set of tools. In my book, I found a clear winner as far as the type of work this combination is being used for, and it's the Zoom H1. Why? Leaving it at the highest bitrate for basic short audio capture provides you under 1 hour on a 2GB microSD card and they both work great. You can drop down the audio bitrate and grab yourself more time, but what if you really need even more? Well I just shot a few events in which this setup was used, so to be safe we needed to go with the 8GB MicroSD Cards that I showed in this post: http://cheesycam.com/canon-60d-shipping-actually-shipped/. BTW, they've been working flawlessy and such a good price for those microSD Cards.

Unfortunately, possibly a Tascam Firmware issue, the Tascam DR-08 could not see the 8GB microSD card. Only the Zoom H1 was able to see and utilize the full 8GB providing 4 times more recording time. You never know how long it's going to take for an event to get started, or how long until it's over, so I just felt safer with the unit that can house the larger microSD card. Here's another tip that's a bit related. Regular batteries don't stand a fair chance with today's electronics. I hear many people complaining about how fast a battery grip with AA's, LED lights, or an Audio Recorder can run down batteries very quickly. I push the Eneloop batteries not only because they are rechargeable, but because they DO hold 4 times more capacity than a regular battery. If you want to use your Zoom H1 as a body pack, give it a fighting chance and put some quality batteries in.

zoom-h1
Buy Zoom H1 via Amazon
Buy Zoom H1 via BHPHOTOVIDEO
Buy Zoom H1 via eBay

sanyo-eneloop-power-pack-kit
Buy Sanyo Eneloop Power Pack Kit via BHPHOTOVIDEO
Buy Sanyo Eneloop via Amazon

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Zoom_H1_Handy_Portable_Digital_Recorder

Forums are opening up with complaints about the new Zoom H1 having some serious battery drain issues. Just thought i'd post an article here to see what comments pour in. Supposedly there could be a bad batch of Zoom H1's floating around with problem capacitors that will drain brand new batteries to almost nothing just overnight. By habit I always recharge my Eneloop batteries and use a fresh set in all my gear before a shoot. So this is something i've never noticed. I'll have to grab a fresh pack of non-rechargeables to test this out myself on my units. I'm digging around to see what Samson or Zoom might have to say about this, and if it's true, what will be done for consumers. If you've got any more information, fill us in with your comments below.


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Mailbag-thursday

A few boxes came in this morning, but not the one i've been really waiting on. According to the tracking, the one package i'm excited about should be here later this afternoon (show you later). These boxes aren't of much interest. One is the XLR cable for my AT875 Short Shotgun Microphone for the JuicedLink DT454, the other package is 4 Mini Flexible Tripods for my Studio, the third is the Kodak Pulse Digital Picture frame. Wow, that was fast...

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redrock-micro-evf

Cinema5D's got the scoop on a new Redrock Micro 'Electronic View Finder' specifically designed for HD Video DSLR's. We all new this day was coming, but what I totally didn't expect was the expected price point. Wow, I really hope they can meet those goals, that's just ridiculous pricing for anything RedRock Micro. It looks very functional and I can see myself using that quite a bit. Today we had a crane shot on a roof of a building in broad daylight. It's was about 90 degrees out on a clear day, and we couldn't see crap on the monitor. Having a remote EVF like this running down a jib would have been a perfect solution. This design in remote View Finders via HDMI also means it would be cross brand compatible. Regardless of camera make and model, this should be fairly future proof. Zacuto has also admitted to be working on a new EVF, but so far nothing tangible has hit the web. Even if Zacuto does release an EVF, it would be interesting to see if pricing will be competitive with the new RedRock Micro Electronic Viewfinder. Check out the Cinema5D Video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZYW1VwFdHk

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cheesycam-mailbag

There it is, the 2nd Canon EOS 60D DSLR has arrived in time for the Sunday Music video shoot project. With my friend's, we'll have a total of three on set. Also another exciting item I get to use for a different project is of course the JuicedLink DT454 4-Channel DSLR Camera Microphone Preamplifier. You've heard me mention it quite a bit in the past few days, and I wasn't name dropping for nothing! I was just waiting for it...but I think you guys got the subtle clues. I'll hook it up and run a few tests, but in order to complete this audio setup, I'm still waiting on the Audio-Technica AT875 Short Condenser Shotgun Microphone to come in. ( Oh crap my wife reads this blog..doesn't know about this one yet...damn too late to hide it....).

juicedlink-dt454
JuicedLink DT454

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Audio-Technica AT875 Shotgun Microphone

The AT875 is a Short Shotgun powered by 12v Phantom giving you a bit of extra run time on your batteries over a 24v Phantom powered mic. Suggested by JuicedLink.com as a decent cheap pair for the DT454. If you can't trust them, who can you trust? Reviews and samples coming soon....

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DIY-portable-sound-booth

Since we're on the topic of Audio capture, one of tips I remember came from an article about mobile Podcasting. This was when the iPod first came out years ago and there was a slew of audio podcasting stations (which I see now replaced with Video castings. So Podcasters who traveled the country often needed to setup a microphone and record themselves, sometimes in a hotel room which wasn't always the best place for clean audio. If you catch some of my random videos shot in the warehouse (even on Zoom H1) you'll hear a bit of reverb from the sound bouncing around on the walls.

So the tip that I was reading was that you don't necessarily need an extremely large sound booth to contain a whole person. That's mainly used to block out ambient noise. If you're in a fairly quiet spot and you want to minimize the reverb on the microphone you can just contain the microphone into it's own little sound booth. Anyways, I forget where that article was but Fred over at Tuperhero.com has a budget way of making a DIY portable sound booth to contain your microphone or portable audio recorder. With this positioned close to your subject and out of camera frame, it could help clean up the audio pickup from all that reverb and minimize some of the ambient noise from the sides and rear of the microphone pickup. [Thanks Fred]

DIY-portable-sound-booth-audio

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DSLR BTS Behind the Scenes

Yeah there I go, second member of the DSLR BTS (Behind the Scenes) group over at Vimeo immediately after the man of Zacuto himself, Steve Weiss. Another top DSLR gear maker as a member is Cinevate, which BTW I am patiently awaiting the release of their new and more affordable Atlas 10 Camera Slider (hurry up guys! or send me a Beta!). It's a new group started by the dudes at DSLRUniversity.com dedicated to behind the scenes work with DSLR's, and that's where you'll always find the latest gear, tips, tricks, and techniques. If you guys are interested in that kinda stuff (which if you're on this blog, i'm sure you are), check it out and join in. After my music video shoot with the 3 Canon 60D's, i'm hoping to add a BTS video there too.

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canon-60d-lcd-screen
Canon EOS 60D 18 MP CMOS Digital SLR Camera with 3.0-Inch LCD and 18-135mm

I keep talking about the manual audio levels being a big plus for the Canon 60D right now, and I think some people are still wondering what the big deal is. Currently only the 5D Mark II has this option and hopefully there will be new firmware for the other cameras. The in camera audio for the Canon 7D and T2i use AGC - automatic gain control that can't be disabled. The camera boosts the microphone signal pretty high that it has a constant hissing noise. If you're in a loud busy environment, you won't really notice this due to all the distracting sounds, but put these cameras into a quiet environment and you'll notice the difference big time. If you think Magic Lantern will be your solution, check out the comment I left in this article: http://cheesycam.com/canon-7d-vs-60d-vs-550d-t2i/

juicedlink-dt454
JuicedLink DT454 4-Channel DSLR Camera Microphone Preamplifier

The workaround right now for cameras with AGC on all the time, is to use a separate audio recorder and record directly to that. Next you'll sync that audio in post. For shooting in 24p that gets a little tricky getting long audio to sync. For anyone shooting hundreds of short clips throughout the day, that also adds post processing hours trying to match everything up. If you want to shave some time on recording to a separate device, you can use devices like the JuicedLink DT454 or similar that will send a constant tone to one channel of the audio tricking the AGC. I have to say though that these Audiophile guys who build these preamp boxes weren't very happy with the Nikon DSLR's. Nikon have a different way of setting the audio and still didn't produce as nice results as the Canon's. Don't quote 'me' on that, but that's the scoop I got. We'll just have to wait and see if that's been improved on the newer Nikon DSLR's.

If you've got a few minutes to spare, great tutorials about AGC and the hissing noise can be found here: https://www.juicedlink.com/reducing-camera-hiss/chapter/0

Here's a very old example of a test I did when Magic Lantern was first released for the Canon 5D Mark II to allow manual audio levels. This should give you a better idea of what the new Manual Audio Levels in the Canon 60D are capable of. Not the best of the best, but much better quality can be captured if your camera allows you to manually set the amount of gain.

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Now that Canon is throwing everyone for a loop releasing every 'in between' type of camera, I just thought i'd throw up a video about a few differences in the Canon 7D vs 60D vs T2i. I too was quite disappointed that Canon didn't release any earth shattering news about new video features on their latest camera. For 5DM2 and 7D owners, the announcement of the 60D was nothing to get too overly excited about. When it was between the T2i and 7D I advised all my friends starting in DSLR video to go with the T2i, save the extra $1000 dollars and buy yourself some better glass. Now the 60D is coming in at just $300 dollars more than the T2i, I'm going to change my tune. For Canon T2i owners who said they wouldn't, I think once you've used it and seen what it can do, you'll make a decision to upgrade.

There are some really nice features for videographers that will instantly improve what you're already doing with the T2i. For one, the White balance settings on the 60D are way easier to control than the T2i, and adds the option for manual Kelvin settings. The Flip out LCD you might be able to live without (I think it's really nice), but the Manual Audio levels are well worth the extra $300 dollars alone. Why bother with an external Audio recorder when you can connect a microphone directly and manually adjust audio levels in the camera? You shoot hundreds of tiny little clips throughout the day and when you come home, you have nothing to sync. You change your settings to 24p to get that cinema look, and instead of running hundreds of clips through Plural Eyes, all that work is already done. This already will save you hours and hours of post work. Sure you can defeat AGC on the other cameras, but in doing so, you'll already be spending a few hundred dollars on a decent device. The upgraded body already puts the 60D in a different class. It's no longer a lightweight Rebel camera, the 60D feels sturdy with a bit more weather proofing. We're not even talking about all the Photography upgrades, so for beginner Hybrid shooters the decision should be easy regarding the $300 dollar price difference.

canon-eos-family-1

I was surprised that Canon didn't release any new video features like 120fps or at least 1080@60fps, but not surprised Canon released another camera with obvious Video dedicated ergonomic upgrades. Having spent an extra $1000 dollars for their first 1080 DSLR Video camera, there were thousands of Canon 7D owners who were shocked when the Canon T2i was first announced. I think the announcement of the 60D for just a few hundred dollars more appeals to T2i owners in the same way. Overall the Canon 60D is indeed a great camera at a great price, and Canon has made great strides in adding more professional video features, audio features, photography features, and body upgrades into a more affordable camera.