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Canon Vixia HF S200 Beeping!?
Hi All,
My brand new Canon Vixia HF S200 (which I love!) makes a beeping noise that I can hear on the headphones and gets recorded onto the audio track when I connect it to external microphones. I need to run more tests with all my mics, but so far it seems to be consistent with my AT 4073a connected via a BeachTek adaptor.
The beep is synchronized with the flash of the Access Indicator Light, on the rear of the camera. Every time the light flashes there is a beep. When the camera is recording, the light flashes consistently until recording is stopped.
Turn up your volume so you can hear the beeping, and check out this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_POCuRLXAI
I called Canon. The customer service rep had never heard of this problem, but we did a hard reset and it seemed to fix the problem. The next day, when I was shooting again, the beeping came back! And hard resets didn’t seem to help.
This is SO FRUSTRATING! I’m really hoping I just got a dud, and this is not a problem general to all Vixia HF S200 cameras.
Any help would be awesome.
-Andrew
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9 Replies
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Hmm… been running some more tests, and it seems to be a ground loop problem. First of all, the beep seems to change volume or even whether or not it is present based on the position of the camera. If I hold it and roll it up or down etc, I notice changes in the beep. Secondly, the BeachTek allows me to switch between 2 Ground settings. After I set it to Ground 2, it seems to have gotten rid of the beep.
I don’t understand a lot about Ground loops and audio/noise signals, but it seems like the camera and the BeachTek were sharing the same ground signal via the stereo mini, and the voltage needed to generate the flash of the access indicator light was picked up on the loop and caused a “beep” noise that was recorded to the master signal.
Interesting. Let me know your thoughts on this, if you have anything to add. As I said, I’m a newb when it comes to voltage, amps, signal to noise ratios, etc. so I’m just speculating here. I’m not an audio technician, just a filmmaker, so please make any explanations simple and in laymen’s terms. Thanks!
-Andrew
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Hello
I recently have been working with a Canon VIXIA HF21 and I have a similar problem. I use a beachtek and wireless mic and once I begin recording I can hear a very low beep sound synchronized with the access light flashing. I am beyond frustrated and have been googling all sorts of keywords the past couple of days until now that i found your post. Did your issue get resolved? -
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Not sure if this helps but… I’ve been shooting with a Canon HFS200 and Beachtek for about a year with no problems, then a few weeks ago I started having the same beeping problem bleeding onto my audio tracks. I contacted Beachtek thinking it was the Beachtek device. They thought it might be my mini to mini cable and replaced it.
It seemed to work until I reassembled my kit (attached beachtek to camera to handle grip to tripod) then the problem came back. Eventually I came to the conclusion that the tiny post on the tripod plate that holds alignment was touching something inside the Beachtek and causing a grounding problem. When I removed the post, the problem disappeared.
Beachtek thinks that the post isn’t causing the problem and that I just need to switch my Ground from G1 to G2. The only problem is that I tried that while I was having the problem in the first place and it didn’t help. Beachtek then advised that I also change the grounding switch on my camera to G2, but I can’t find that setting on the camera.
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It’s fixed! As I indicated with my second post above! Your BeachTek should have a tiny switch on the bottom (if it’s like mine) that changes the Ground Loop setting. Set it to the alternate setting one and you should be good to go!
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Interesting… I doubt that the Camera has a Ground setting. I’m betting you are totally right about the tripod plate post touching something in the BeachTek. As for my problem, switching it to G2 seems to have completely fixed my it. I haven’t had any beeping since!
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The HF S200 doesn’t have a hard drive. It only uses SD memory cards.
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Hi Andrew, i have the same problem, my canon vixia hf s200 makes a boring beeps noises! Did you find any solution to fix this?
Best regards
Dennis from Brazil -
[Matthew Barbato] “It seemed to work until I reassembled my kit (attached beachtek to camera to handle grip to tripod) then the problem came back. Eventually I came to the conclusion that the tiny post on the tripod plate that holds alignment was touching something inside the Beachtek and causing a grounding problem. When I removed the post, the problem disappeared.”
Fast forward to 2017 — this is STILL a problem. I’m having it with my Canon G30 and G40, and as you discovered, it only happens if the audio interface (Beachtek in your case) or recorder (Tascam DR-701D in my case) is threaded all the way into the bottom of the camera. As soon as I unthread it a hair, the beep/chirp (which is tied to the tally lamp) goes away. Unfortunately, I don’t see a “ground” setting I can change on the Tascam. This seems like a prolific problem across the Canon line of cameras which needs to be corrected by:
1. Isolating the tripod/mount thread on the bottom of the camera from the rest of the camera’s electronics (so there is no ground issue)
2. Making sure all their cameras allow the operator to DISABLE the Tally Lamp! Most cameras have a system option for TALLY LAMP On/Off.
I’m shocked #2 doesn’t exist, and am really upset that #1 still is going on still after all these years.
I’m talking with Canon support and hope they will listen.
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