Richard Schiller
Forum Replies Created
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Hi George. Deepest apologies for not replying earlier. I really need to turn notifications on.
I do hope that you have been enjoying your LS-100 and getting good use from it.
In answer to your question (in case it is still relevant to you or maybe someone), I only found one solution. I know this solution will not be relevant to lots of users though. I would record the tracks, transfer them to a laptop, and then listen back in something like audacity where I could both have a higher listening level and apply gain to the file as well (temporarily) in order to get the listening volume I needed.
Warning to all readers, do not listen to any audio at levels likely to cause you harm.
There are two problems. One is that the headphone outputs on these devices are quite quiet for many headphones. In my case, for any headphones that I have tried. There are a few reasons, but I think the dominant one is that while most headphones need quite a bit of power the device can’t afford much power because of battery life. The usual solution people resort to – often without knowing the impact of what they are doing – is to set recording levels so the monitoring sound is easily audible. This is wrong. It is also encouraged by the way the meters are calibrated. Recording at the right level on the LS-100 means the meters hardly ever indicate anything – in my experience. The recording level should ideally be set to match either the noise floor of the microphone to the recorder or to match the microphone’s peak level to the recorder’s maximum. Hence why there is no reason to go above low gain and 5.5 on the level dial on this Olympus model.
Another solution could be an external headphone amplifier plugged into the LS-100 and feeding the headphones. I have no experience of such devices.
The last solution I know of is to use the first solution here to establish the right general levels and then to just trust your recording and hope. There is so much to be said against this and I would not recommend it, but it is a method I have used many times myself.
What such recorders really need is a degree of digital gain that can be switched in to the monitoring path only – before the headphones and the meters.
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Todd
Thanks a lot for your analysis. As you say it would be so easy now. Glad that someone with some knowledge of celluloid was able to help.
I am still curious to know a bit more – perhaps from anyone who used this same effect in celluloid or has noticed it in another film.
Once again, thanks.
Richard Schiller
Working amateur
Panasonic Camcorder 1080p, Nikon SLR with video acquisition 720p, Sony Vegas editing software.
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Now there is a challenge. It is not clear what moddel it is but the instruction manual says “iprompter for ipad”
Richard Schiller
Working amateur
Panasonic Camcorder 1080p, Nikon SLR with video acquisition 720p, Sony Vegas editing software.
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Hi Charlie
I recently bought the i-pad based prompter from DataVision. I believe that this is sold under more than one name but this version includes the flight case. This unit suits a variety of cameras via a fairly flexible mounting system but I have only used it so far with a Canon DSLR. I suspect it will be more awkward to use with the smallest consumer camcorders though as there will be little room to fasten the cloth used to seal (lightwise) the angled glass to the camera. You use one of two apps to provide the teleprompting both of which are mentioned in the manual. One app works (for the left-right reversed text needed in the reflected view the reader gets) and the other does not. It has a remote control that allows the reader to set the speed and pause the text. I think it was around $500 equivalent. One thing I have not tried is filming outside on a really sunny day. It seems very high contrast and fairly bright but I cannot say for sure it will work there.
My presenter was blown away and so, to some extent, was I – from the front. The quality of the displayed text is fantastic and the controlability is good. The remote control is a bit small and along with the lead a bit vulnerable but works OK. There are two things you are likely to break; the remote and the glass and both are quite expensive to replace – what would you expect though I guess. The software is easy to use. It is excellent to get the included flight case – and you do need one.
The downside? Apart from the high cost of the spares it is the all-to-common point about supplied flight cases being designed for the parts and not the completed unit. What is supplied is more-or-less a kit. You have to assemle it (the instructions are not great) and then you have a working prompter. To be fair you will have to reconfigure it for different sized cameras and to do things like to change it from front-of-lens to under-lens configurations. I find I have to almost completely disassemble the thing to pack it though which is a pain.
In terms of how well it works for the presenter versus its price though – fantastic.
I hope that helps,
Richard
Richard Schiller
Working amateur
Panasonic Camcorder 1080p, Nikon SLR with video acquisition 720p, Sony Vegas editing software.
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Ty/Al
Thanks for your replies. Apologies for the tardiness of my response here as I only get to a computer occasionally just at the moment. I hope these comments clear some of the questions…
Our set-up is about reasonably good quality but in a highly practical form. Like using the studio condenser mic for the video shoots. Uncommon I believe but the sound is wonderful and very tolerant of things like gain settings because of the low noise floor. As our shooting environment is so controlled hiding the mic is not too much of an issue.
We are not using a mixer at the moment and my desire is not to use one in future for our general recording so I want a recorder with a pre-amp and phantom power. I do have a mixer by-the-way but less equipment makes for easier and more reliable shooting of course. I take your point though Ty that the pre-amps on a good mixer are likely to be better.
We use one mic at a time but I would be happy to have the capacity for two. This is because we only have one presenter and our films are mono.
Using DSLRs, and that type of camera, means wiring sound into the camera is messy. The inputs are unbalanced. plugs are not very secure etc. So we record sound separately. Now I want to make that easier with a self-contained separate recorder.
We do not put timecode on the audio tracks. when you are only shooting short scenes finding sync using the clapper board seems to work fine.
I have seen that the Marantz gets fine comment for its pre-amps.
I guess to sum up I want a low-noise solution with good dynamic range for ease of use. The end product is not a classical concert recording though or anything like that so the need for quality is simply so that we have less likelihood of a problem than because of any audiophile needs at the end of the chain (does that make sense?).
I hope that helps.
Richard
Richard Schiller
Working amateur
Panasonic Camcorder 1080p, Nikon SLR with video acquisition 720p, Sony Vegas editing software.
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Firstly Jeffrey – like the video; very funny
Glad to hear from someone who has used the camera with non-Canon lenses. That is reassuring to hear. I did not know about the histogram. It seems that while not the most robust option; in terms of features (for video) the T3i has the best of any Canon at the moment.
You know that it seems odd right now. My daughter had a whole bunch of college equipment at home over the weekend for a shoot. She was filming in the morning with her group and then afterwards we took a look in the shops at Canon DSLRs. She noticed that the DSLRs (essentially stills cameras with added video of course) had a better screen than the video camera she had just been using and a neat zoom (or is it magnify) function to help with fine focus. Your mentioning the histogram kind of adds to that sense that while some things are just not as good as a proper video camera (rolling shutter, the ergonomics for video, the lack of that second hole on the tripod mount) others are much better (depth of field, interchangeable lenses, the ergonomics of focussing [specifically], information like the histogram). It seems that we live in a changing world!
Richard Schiller
Working amateur
Panasonic Camcorder 1080p, Nikon SLR with video acquisition 720p, Sony Vegas editing software.
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Brent
Thanks for this instructuve reply. Very good point about the tripod – a pretty essential accessory. The audio recorder and light also make sense.
Richard Schiller
Working amateur
Panasonic Camcorder 1080p, Nikon SLR with video acquisition 720p, Sony Vegas editing software.
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Ty
Thanks for your reply. No; I have great audio from the shoot because I laid down the tracks separately and synced them in the edit. What I was wondering is how one now turns balanced to unblanced nowadays in an electrically noisy environment like that? I still have some transformers around and I can use them if necessary but I need to suggest equipment for the rest of the team to buy and these simple, small, battery and power-supply free devices do not seem to be readily available. So is there a modern method? I would not need to ask if the cameras had balamced inputs but they don’t.
Richard
Richard Schiller
Working amateur
Panasonic Camcorder 1080p, Nikon SLR with video acquisition 720p, Sony Vegas editing software.
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Danny
Apologies for the tardy reply. I have been looking at this and searching the web for solutions for some time in between real work of course. I think I have found one. If I right-click on each video track I have the choice to set some “switches”. By choosing “disable resample” I get rid of the triplexing effect where each output frame is made of three input frames.
I will now try and look at the de-interlacing setting you suggested and see if it achieves a similar end but for the overall project.
Boy this is a complex piece of software!
Richard
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Mike
The one property I cannot match is that the source is 1080 50p. Vegas accepts that but does not support it as a project setting. I can only set 1080 25i or 720 50p. I have tried both.
I was trying to convert to 576 25i but I have also had to downconvert to non-standard formats like 640×360 progressive.
I have tried various settings and rendered the project as interlaced and progressive versions. In all cases Vegas seems not to filter the images but simply decimate them.
I may well be doing something stupid. I was just expecting that if the source was a higher resolution than the rendered output then filtering would automatically be applied. I can see that it is not – at least in the way I have set this up.
Richard Schiller
Working amateur
Panasonic Camcorder 1080p, Nikon SLR with video acquisition 720p, Sony Vegas editing software.