Audio

[ggrantly]

With all the buzz about image quality and the early adopter issues, I've heard very little about audio quality of the EX. Some Sony cams have had a reputation for poor sound. Any shooters opinions on the new cam would be appreciated. Please include whether or not you have a sound person or professional level audio gear.

Thanks in advance

[basspig]

As a VERY unhappy owner of two HVR-V1Us, who's been thrown off more than a few forums for exposing the problem in the past 8 months, I completely understand your concern. Congratulations. You have a good ear for sound and that puts you in the upper 5 percentile of videographers. Most will tell you, as they told me, that there is nothing wrong with the audio on the V1U. That said, I was very skeptical of the XDCam EX for this reason.

A member of this forum did a preliminary test that convinced me it is done right on the EX1--no high pass filters. So I bought one and tested it myself under tighter lab conditions. It's excellent. In fact it's DAT-quality.

Even the on board mic is not so awful. But it really shines with a pair of good studio condensers connected. On board mic has good bass, a midrange that's a bit emphasized and e pretty sweet high end, but little stereo separation.

I recommend something like a Rode NT4 for this camera. For run and gun at musical events, it's hard to beat.

You can't go wrong with the EX1. It's what Sony's HDV cameras should have been.