Audio for the 7D

C

csuchorsky

Member
I have a shoot coming up and I'm planning to use two Canon 7Ds. I bought them to use on a new documentary I'm shooting, but I wanted to try them out on this corporate shoot. Of course, I don't want to screw up the audio for this shoot either so here's the question...

The 7D has no control over audio levels. It has a mini plug that you can hook up to external mics through an XLR to mini plug. As far as adjusting levels, the camera has none. My sound guy will control the levels on his end using a 442 Sound Device. Has anyone tried recording sound to a 7D like this and has anyone had any problems. Or...is there a better solution?

Thanks!
 
That won't work well, because the auto gain on the camera will kick in and cause a lot of hiss when it's quiet. And without hearing what you're getting on there, you won't know if it's good or not.

The best solution is to record the audio separately on another recorder, and sync them in post by using a clapper/ slate or the camera audio.
 
Tim Joy said:
That won't work well, because the auto gain on the camera will kick in and cause a lot of hiss when it's quiet. And without hearing what you're getting on there, you won't know if it's good or not.

The best solution is to record the audio separately on another recorder, and sync them in post by using a clapper/ slate or the camera audio.
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I saw this in another post as I was investigating the same thing. Shouldnt this on of these BeachTeks do the job. In the other post the person stated that the device injects a tone to control the agc. Dont know how well it works, I have a Rode mic and would like to use it along with this device to record clean audio if possible.
 
Is the h4n the best solution? I've seen some mixed reports. What is the best solution? Is there an external recorder, portable, that offers better control and recording than the h4n?
 
pumatrax said:
I saw this in another post as I was investigating the same thing. Shouldnt this on of these BeachTeks do the job. In the other post the person stated that the device injects a tone to control the agc. Dont know how well it works, I have a Rode mic and would like to use it along with this device to record clean audio if possible.
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Yes, they work, but I don't really consider it a pro solution unless I can see the level meters on the camera and monitor the audio it's recording.
There's still lots of room for error, plus you're left with only 1 channel to record to. It's a question of how many hoops you're willing to jump through, I guess.

When you're dealing with interviews and doco stuff that only happen once, you need a solid device you can depend on.
 
Noel Evans said:
Is the h4n the best solution? I've seen some mixed reports. What is the best solution? Is there an external recorder, portable, that offers better control and recording than the h4n?
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For the money, maybe it is. I did an entire feature documentary on it and the usability and ergonomics got in the way a lot. Let's just say- thank god I had a back up recorder, because the zoom let me down a couple times. The bootup time and battery usage are not so good when you're on the run. I would rather have something better, but it's at least double the money for the next step up.
 
RandomHero said:
Juicedlink just announced today their application for this. AGC defeat, headphone out, meter, everything. Attaches to a Juicedlink Pre-amp. Be a lot cheaper of a solution. It's called the DN-101. Robert also made a quick video about the installation process.
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This may be a good option for some people, but I would never ever use an unbalanced input for my production sound. Double system is going to be much much cleaner and more reliable period.
 
RandomHero said:
Juicedlink just announced today their application for this. AGC defeat, headphone out, meter, everything. Attaches to a Juicedlink Pre-amp. Be a lot cheaper of a solution. It's called the DN-101. Robert also made a quick video about the installation process.
Click to expand...

From the website:

"By overloading one channel, it defeats the camera’s AGC, and gives you better audio."

Now, I don't know anything about audio. But I don't think I want any of my channels overloaded...
 
So for this upcoming shoot it looks like I'm shooting 1080p24 on the 7D and using the HPX170 recording at 720p24 for audio...
 
As long as one channel doesn't bleed into the other - something one must test - it's a valid hack. However, I'm +1 on the SD722 (or 702) for going double-system. The 702 lacks a HD and time code, but you can go a LOOOOOONG time on a 4 or 8GB CF card and shooting with the 7D, you lack timecode anyway. Bulletproof, professional, flexible, one of the best pro field devices of any media I've ever encountered.

But everything fails eventually. An FR-2LE or H4n would make a good backup devices to a SD7XX recorder.
 
Hello,
Has anyone used the Zoom h2? I'm getting my 7d tomorrow and will use it for some general video work but my main concern is interview audio. I do a lot of somewhat controlled in-the-field interviews (limited background noise, etc., using a Rode videomic) and was thinking abut using the 7d for video and the H2 for the audio and gathering room tone/ambient sounds. I'd just plug in the Rode to the H2 and adj the audio levels. I'm currently using an hv30 for this, but it's seen better years and the audio level indicator has disappeared.

Realizing that the internal 7d mic will be pretty useless, I can still use it to help syncing the audio with claps.

I think the H4n would be overkill for my budget purposes. Any ideas?
 
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