Test Recording, Singers, 1080/24p 1/60, no lighting, open shutter, no zoom, gain 6

[kwkeirstead]

*** TYPO IN HEADING *** "no lighting, open iris, no zoom, gain 6***

This is my second recording with a new AC 160 - it was done last night in a church hall, about 15 feet away, with a Rode VideoMic.

**Removed**

Looks OK to me considering someone tripped over the tripod leg 2 mins before it started. For the future, maybe I should consider being inside a large dog cage that has been decorated with razor wire?

I was trying out a Manfrotto 501 PFI for the 1st time. Curiously, the focus seemed to be changing on its own and I did check to see that I was not on auto.

I don't like having the lens open or being at a gain of 6 - I should have brought my lighting.

Suggestions for improvements would be appreciated.

[ChrisHarding]

Regardless of the fact that you are using available light and nothing else that's a pretty darn good image. 6DB for the 160 is chicken feed!!! On my old 1/4" chip HMC80's I used to get pretty clean images at 15db and get away with it!! The new sensors seem to have very little noise. Just for interest, is your VideoMic going thru an XLR channel and what sort of settings were you using??? With my Videomic on 0db (no attenuation in the mic) and the Cam channel at -50db I still have to crank up the manual level to half way at least when filming a single person talking!! Then again, all those voices must have been a fairly strong audio level!!! Pity you couldn't have persuaded the choir mistress to just take one step backwards !!

Nice job anyway!!

Chris

[kwkeirstead]

Thanks, Chris, nice to hear comments from people with experience.

I was very surprised with my test results. Funny you should bring up Videomic. I have the same sound level issues you report. I think Videomic gives amazing results but have not tried other on-camera mics so I really have no way to compare.

I have mine at 0db and I also have the cam at -50db. I go to channel 2 with the Videomic (using an adapter). The settings for both inputs 1 and 2 are mic/mic and I set the audio level for ch1 at about 1/2 and for ch2 its at 3/4.

I bought a Videomic Pro about a year ago but am not sure how I will be able to use it on the AC 160. It might give better output compared to VideoMic (not sure about this) but it won't mount on the AC160 mic holder so you have to use up the cold shoe.

I plan to add a light soon as I find out which one I should have (any suggestions?) so short of a bracket that lets me put two devices on the cold shoe, I really cannot use the VideoMic Pro.

Not sure I like the idea of needing a converter to plug the VideoMic into an XLR channel - actually, I would prefer a dual direct XLR feed but the option of 150 feet of wiring from a stage to the back of a church seems silly, so I guess wireless ($$$) is the only decent solution.

[Josh Bass]

Curious about why you were in 24p but 1/60 shutter? Generally shutter for 24fps is 1/48. That would have helped a teeny bit with low light. Or did you mean shutter off? Dont know what open shutter means.

[kwkeirstead]

Sorry, I meant shutter off and iris open. I should indeed have set shutter at 1/48

[ChrisHarding]

The most practical way is to run new cable on the videomic!! The spiral cable and silly little 3.5mm plug is really useless. As long as you can solder then it's really simple..just open up the mic and disconnect the old curly cable from the circuit board and replace with decent cable. You can then cut the cable to length and solder on an XLR plug!! Both my VideoMics are done like this....adapters are scary to use!!!

Chris