[Craig Alan]

If the camera is the main, or in this case only, audio recording device, then it would seem to me the audio tech should be near the camera, not in the way but near, check the cam’s meters as well as the mixer’s and check the cam’s headphone out either directly or through RTN.

It makes no sense to me how the cam and audio mixer could have been calibrated and yet the mixer output did not reach the cam unless something was switched after the fact.

I tell my students before every shoot that audio problems ruin more takes than the visual at all levels of production. I also tell them, and this might have helped in this case, to shoot some test footage and play it back listening to headphones out the cam. If a setting is wrong, you will be sure to catch it there. Levels on both meters can look perfect and the sound could still be awful. I even once had a shoot where the headphone out the cam sounded fine, the meters looked good, but the played back sound was off. I can’t remember exactly what happened in this case but it involved some consumer level mix of mini-plugs and adapters. This won’t apply to a pro set up, but still some test footage can never hurt and sometimes prevents a disaster. Tape based cams sometimes have an overstretched tape or dirty record heads – resulting in poor audio playback.

If I were working as an audio pro, I would have a 744T and always bring it as a back up or main audio recording device. If the production had a decent budget, I would charge for it. If the production did not, I would use it, and only offer the resulting recording if they complained about the cam’s audio quality. At that point, you could step in, save the day, and charge a postproduction fee for your time.

Camera operators or one-man bands often talk about needing a big cam to look more pro – to impress clients. We live in times where a lot of clients expect more for less. The 302 at $1200 is a great piece of gear but also within reach of a lot of prosumers and even serious amateurs or in-house video crews at a variety of companies that shoot bare bones videos. A 744T and the know-how to sync the resulting recording in post is most likely something offered only by a very serious generalist or an audio pro.

OSX 10.5.8; MacBookPro4,1 Intel Core 2 Duo 2.5 GHz MacPro4,1 2.66GHz 8 core 12gigs of ram. GPU: Nvidia Geoforce GT120 with Vram 512. OS X 10.6.x; Camcorders: Sony Z7U, Canon HV30/40, Sony vx2000/PD170; FCP 6 certified; write professionally for a variety of media; teach video production in L.A.

[Craig Alan]

Thank you.
I have contacted k-tek and as you say they offer very good support. My problem is I have 30 production teams and even if I master keeping the pole untwisted, it will continue to get twisted. I think what I will do is leave them fully extended and only fold them down myself. Just the same I am looking for higher quality polls with straight cords. The audio pros I know do not use the internal corded models.

On the Schoeps CMC641 — how are you using them? On a boom? Hand-held? V.O.? All.

OSX 10.5.8; MacBookPro4,1 Intel Core 2 Duo 2.5 GHz MacPro4,1 2.66GHz 8 core 12gigs of ram. GPU: Nvidia Geoforce GT120 with Vram 512. OS X 10.6.x; Camcorders: Sony Z7U, Canon HV30/40, Sony vx2000/PD170; FCP 6 certified; write professionally for a variety of media; teach video production in L.A.

[Craig Alan]

Be sure to provide adequate ventilation. They can overheat and power down in the middle of a shoot. Leave an air gap above them and some space between.

OSX 10.5.8; MacBookPro4,1 Intel Core 2 Duo 2.5 GHz MacPro4,1 2.66GHz 8 core 12gigs of ram. GPU: Nvidia Geoforce GT120 with Vram 512. OS X 10.6.x; Camcorders: Sony Z7U, Canon HV30/40, Sony vx2000/PD170; FCP 6 certified; write professionally for a variety of media; teach video production in L.A.

[Craig Alan]

Best to get the mike off the camera body, close to source. Sound Devices mixers are built solid, have great support from company, give you beautiful easy to read meters, clean quiet preamps, adjustable outputs, very good headphone amps, phantom power, etc. They’ll most likely outlive your cameras.

If the only problem with pana’s was the mounting screws, can’t a trip to the hardware store do the trick?

OSX 10.5.8; MacBookPro4,1 Intel Core 2 Duo 2.5 GHz MacPro4,1 2.66GHz 8 core 12gigs of ram. GPU: Nvidia Geoforce GT120 with Vram 512. OS X 10.6.x; Camcorders: Sony Z7U, Canon HV30/40, Sony vx2000/PD170; FCP 6 certified; write professionally for a variety of media; teach video production in L.A.

[Craig Alan]

[Paolo Castellano] “XHG1 has the SDI out, XHA1 and XHA1S have YUV and Firewire out only”
too bad. looked at manual quickly and didn’t realize it was for two different models. as far as 4 year old tape based cam — it really depends on hours of use and condition.

OSX 10.5.8; MacBookPro4,1 Intel Core 2 Duo 2.5 GHz MacPro4,1 2.66GHz 8 core 12gigs of ram. GPU: Nvidia Geoforce GT120 with Vram 512. OS X 10.6.x; Camcorders: Sony Z7U, Canon HV30/40, Sony vx2000/PD170; FCP 6 certified; write professionally for a variety of media; teach video production in L.A.

[Craig Alan]

In general, I would not buy a 5-year-old tape based cam. There might be a way to check total hours of recording. Check with canon. The tape mechanism is the weak link on these cams. They need yearly professional cleaning and alignment. Plan to do this before you shoot anything. The cam model itself looks fine. Tape is getting old but is still a great way to archive. Nice feature if you can record to card and tape at the same time. Check manual.
Go to bhphoto’s site and download manual.

It has uncompressed SDI out which means you could add a digital recorder and record direct to any flavor of ProRes — This is giving many cams a second life — It gives you instant access to your footage and bypasses the cam’s weaker compression codec (HDV). Not cheap though. Look at KiPro as one excellent example. If you do shoot with HDV, you’ll need to capture in a better editing codec. You could edit in HDV but you don’t want to. And HDV is not a final output codec. Canon tapes/cams sometimes do not play well with other firewire devices. That can be a real pain. But again SDI out gives you a way to capture the HDV tape to any device that accepts SDI In.

Generally with Canon you get great lenses but not so great low light performance compared to say Sony or Panasonic. You didn’t give a price point but I would shop around. Cams keep evolving and it’s a very competitive market right now. Look for XLR inputs and SDI outputs and for a one-man band, I’d suggest card-based and look into the total workflow. There is more to it than a camera. Tripod, lens filter, bag, audio gear including good mikes and a mixer. Professional lights – at a least a key and a reflector for fill. For green screen you need a space where you can get your talent 10 feet from background and the camera ten feet from subject. Then you need to light your b.g. evenly and then your subject with at least a key and a backlight to help separate the subject from the screen. This all adds up – we are not talking $1500 but more like $15000 to get started. That said if you shoot outdoors you could get by with c-stands, reflectors and silks to control the sun, a good boom pole and shot gun mike, a good tripod and a good cam. Here’ a thought: even though you want a one-man band, you might consider a partner to split the expense of getting up and running. You can provide the editing and camera and let your partner be the audio tech and lighting pro. It’s hard to worry about sound levels even after you master your camera. Plus it cuts the investment in half.

OSX 10.5.8; MacBookPro4,1 Intel Core 2 Duo 2.5 GHz MacPro4,1 2.66GHz 8 core 12gigs of ram. GPU: Nvidia Geoforce GT120 with Vram 512. OS X 10.6.x; Camcorders: Sony Z7U, Canon HV30/40, Sony vx2000/PD170; FCP 6 certified; write professionally for a variety of media; teach video production in L.A.

[Craig Alan]

sort of surprised panasonic’s adapter didn’t work out, but I’ve tried a number of xlr adapters and they all fail and add noise to the signal. the Sound Devices MixPre-D Compact Field Mixer is built as solid as the rest of their line of pro audio gear and gives you great features. The mount bracket is solid except that your quick release plate has only one screw hole to mount to on the adapter. So depending on the design of the quick release plate it can twist laterally. The one screw that fits into the camera’s tripod hole works surprisingly well. Very easy on and off (unlike most mounts that use wheels to tighten–cordless receivers hot shoe adapters for example).

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/search?Ntt=mixpre-d&N=0&InitialSearch=yes

Not a cheap option but control over your sound levels will increase dramatically. The mix-pre will most likely outlast your camera. And you can use them in post. You can also link them to other sound devices mixers adding extra channels of audio if you need them.

OSX 10.5.8; MacBookPro4,1 Intel Core 2 Duo 2.5 GHz MacPro4,1 2.66GHz 8 core 12gigs of ram. GPU: Nvidia Geoforce GT120 with Vram 512. OS X 10.6.x; Camcorders: Sony Z7U, Canon HV30/40, Sony vx2000/PD170; FCP 6 certified; write professionally for a variety of media; teach video production in L.A.

[Craig Alan]

Shane,

The AJA I0XT will do the same for Thunderbolt Macbooks and Imacs? Too bad they didn’t include the PCIe port on the XT because I have Macs with all three configurations and I assume the Thunderbolt one will be the future?

Craig

OSX 10.5.8; MacBookPro4,1 Intel Core 2 Duo 2.5 GHz MacPro4,1 2.66GHz 8 core 12gigs of ram. GPU: Nvidia Geoforce GT120 with Vram 512. OS X 10.6.x; Camcorders: Sony Z7U, Canon HV30/40, Sony vx2000/PD170; FCP 6 certified; write professionally for a variety of media; teach video production in L.A.

[Craig Alan]

I have shot HDMI out to a AJA KiPro with a Sony Z7U (not exactly $1000) and it was a regular sized HDMI interconnect. It worked fine. The HDMI cable is a pain in the butt but some velcro helped it from being tugged out. I see no reason this wouldn’t work with my HV40s which I have used to copy the tape to the Ki Pro hard drive. I really do not understand why we have xlr cables which work great and then consumers have to struggle with miniplugs which are problematic or why we have SDI and BNC plugs which work great and then we have to deal with stiff easily disconnected HDMI. I mean how much could possibly be saved by these consumer interconnects? My guess is it will work for you. But test it before the gig.

Power saving mode is an option that can be turned off.

OSX 10.5.8; MacBookPro4,1 Intel Core 2 Duo 2.5 GHz MacPro4,1 2.66GHz 8 core 12gigs of ram. GPU: Nvidia Geoforce GT120 with Vram 512. OS X 10.6.x; Camcorders: Sony Z7U, Canon HV30/40, Sony vx2000/PD170; FCP 6 certified; write professionally for a variety of media; teach video production in L.A.

[Craig Alan]

All the manufacturers make cameras that would fit your technical needs — SONY, PANASONIC, CANON, AND JVC. But your price point is way off. ENG events mean you need quality sound. Unless you plan to go double system, you need a prosumer level cam with xlr inputs. You won’t get that at $1000. The vixia line of card based cameras look and act consumer level but they shoot a very nice image if you give them adequate light. Small lenses need more light. They do have headphone out and mic in (check the specs). But they are not pro cams and do not look like pro cams. You would need to spend anywhere from 3 to 6 times that amount to make yourself look low-end pro. And it’s not all facade. You’ll get xlr connections, much better optics. Better control over light and sound. Better interconnects. If you are serious about being a one-man band, it’s well worth the investment. Not only are they technically better but the ergonomics are way better and that is often the difference between a successful shoot and a nightmare. Think twisting a lens ring to adjust f-stop on the fly instead of fooling around with a joystick and menus. Think a real optical adjustment vs. some digital simulation. When you do decide to buy a pro cam, remember the cost of a good bag, lens filter, media, a quality tripod (starts at $600), and audio gear. Before investing in a camera kit I would try to go on some shoots with pro videographers. You could trade some post work in exchange for some experience. For green screen the bigger lens will really help. You want good separation between camera and talent and between talent and screen. I would recommend DSLRs only if you will have full control over each and every shot. ENG style is where traditional camcorders shine. The up side to DSLRs is better image quality at a given price point. But double system for sounds almost a must. As an editor you must know that sound is often the weak link in what has been recorded. Can’t zoom a mic. Can’t fix over-modulation. That is why one-man-band shoots can be really tough. Most news teams will shoot with a camera operator and an audio tech.

OSX 10.5.8; MacBookPro4,1 Intel Core 2 Duo 2.5 GHz MacPro4,1 2.66GHz 8 core 12gigs of ram. GPU: Nvidia Geoforce GT120 with Vram 512. OS X 10.6.x; Camcorders: Sony Z7U, Canon HV30/40, Sony vx2000/PD170; FCP 6 certified; write professionally for a variety of media; teach video production in L.A.