Call or email canon to get manual audio on the 7d!
- Thread starter Ronster
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mikkowilson
Steadi-Guru
asdfasdf: Watch your language and tone. Keep it professional or take it elsewhere. Thanks.
- Mikko
Totally agree with OP
Totally agree with OP
I totally support the Original Poster's comment, I contacted Canon as well asking for manual audio for my 7D.
Its kind of surprising some of the responses to this. Everything from the really rude first responder to some people saying you should stop complaining and get the 60D or that Canon has the right to make as much money on us as they can.
This is a community message board where we can exchange ideas and give feedback to the companies we use so they can improve their products. That's a vital part of the process. Its not productive or realistic to make unreasonable requests, but Manual audio on the 7D and Rebel T2i are no-brainer add-ons. They're something many of us have always needed, but something we had to compromise on at the time because there were no reasonably better options.
The point here is not finding fault with Canon for not having it in the first place. Yes, 7D owners all bought the camera with the understanding that we could only really record double system. However, considering how easy the feature is in the 60D...simply to turn the AGC on or off...and the fact that they added it in the 5D, it is not unreasonable to expect one for the 7D. We are not asking for a RAW codec. Just the ability to turn the AGC off. Its a reasonable fix, they can do it for the 7D, and we deserve it as customers.
If canon continues to release quality products AND take care of their customers, I'll still buy from them. If they don't, I will buy from a company who values customer loyalty and intentionally designs systems where I don't have to replace an entire product because they won't provide a simple, fixable software update. THAT is good business.
And Thanks to all the users who also contacted Canon.
Oh and for anyone that still doubts that Canon actually NEEDS this feedback, here is a link to an interview with a rep from Canon, who actually ENCOURAGES 7D owners to contact Canon and request manual audio.
http://vimeo.com/15549122
Totally agree with OP
I totally support the Original Poster's comment, I contacted Canon as well asking for manual audio for my 7D.
Its kind of surprising some of the responses to this. Everything from the really rude first responder to some people saying you should stop complaining and get the 60D or that Canon has the right to make as much money on us as they can.
This is a community message board where we can exchange ideas and give feedback to the companies we use so they can improve their products. That's a vital part of the process. Its not productive or realistic to make unreasonable requests, but Manual audio on the 7D and Rebel T2i are no-brainer add-ons. They're something many of us have always needed, but something we had to compromise on at the time because there were no reasonably better options.
The point here is not finding fault with Canon for not having it in the first place. Yes, 7D owners all bought the camera with the understanding that we could only really record double system. However, considering how easy the feature is in the 60D...simply to turn the AGC on or off...and the fact that they added it in the 5D, it is not unreasonable to expect one for the 7D. We are not asking for a RAW codec. Just the ability to turn the AGC off. Its a reasonable fix, they can do it for the 7D, and we deserve it as customers.
If canon continues to release quality products AND take care of their customers, I'll still buy from them. If they don't, I will buy from a company who values customer loyalty and intentionally designs systems where I don't have to replace an entire product because they won't provide a simple, fixable software update. THAT is good business.
And Thanks to all the users who also contacted Canon.
Oh and for anyone that still doubts that Canon actually NEEDS this feedback, here is a link to an interview with a rep from Canon, who actually ENCOURAGES 7D owners to contact Canon and request manual audio.
http://vimeo.com/15549122
I was at Sammy's Camera in Los Angeles a few days ago and was waiting to exchange something in the camera department. One guy there told me to hold on a few minutes because the other guy was busy helping a customer. He said "I'm sorry I can't help you I'm actually from Canon.
My eyes lit up and I said oh well great! Since I'm waiting I might as well share a few thoughts that I know everyone is thinking too. Are you guys going to add the ability to disable the auto gain on the audio input. I said that I use the camera as a filmmaker and that this is one feature I know a lot of filmmakers want turned off.
He told me that Canon can easily do it because it's all software controlling the camera inside but as of now he knows does not know of any action being taken for this. I told him that if he would like to see filmmaker feed back and things that we need done to this camera that he should check out dvxuser.com and cinema5.com
He told me that there were a team of people that Canon has in New York that specifically do nothing but compile data off the web of feedback from various sites such as these and send the data back to Canon in Japan. I made it a point again to him to especially check out dvxuser.com
Lastly he said with a smile that he wanted me to know that Canon was caught completely by surprise about filmmakers adopting the 7d and 5d as a filmmaking camera. He said that they completely did not think it would catch on as it did. He then said because of this Canon will be opening a film division in Burbank or Hollywood (I forgot which) coming soon to handing this filmmaking community and that Canon will be developing some new cameras that will be made specifically for filmmaking. He said that it will be then that we will get the kind of things we were asking for.
My eyes lit up and I said oh well great! Since I'm waiting I might as well share a few thoughts that I know everyone is thinking too. Are you guys going to add the ability to disable the auto gain on the audio input. I said that I use the camera as a filmmaker and that this is one feature I know a lot of filmmakers want turned off.
He told me that Canon can easily do it because it's all software controlling the camera inside but as of now he knows does not know of any action being taken for this. I told him that if he would like to see filmmaker feed back and things that we need done to this camera that he should check out dvxuser.com and cinema5.com
He told me that there were a team of people that Canon has in New York that specifically do nothing but compile data off the web of feedback from various sites such as these and send the data back to Canon in Japan. I made it a point again to him to especially check out dvxuser.com
Lastly he said with a smile that he wanted me to know that Canon was caught completely by surprise about filmmakers adopting the 7d and 5d as a filmmaking camera. He said that they completely did not think it would catch on as it did. He then said because of this Canon will be opening a film division in Burbank or Hollywood (I forgot which) coming soon to handing this filmmaking community and that Canon will be developing some new cameras that will be made specifically for filmmaking. He said that it will be then that we will get the kind of things we were asking for.
Jordan Scott Price
Veteran
I would say:
1. The 5DII was a huge success of Canon's, who was realizing there may be a market in HDSLRs, whose consumers they did not want to ostracize. So when they saw that they had included a feature in their new camera that could hold that market mainly comprised of 5D owners, they released an update. It's kind of like Apple and their iPhones. If I remember correctly, didn't they release one right after the other with a feature that had the owners of the previous generation of iPhone riled up?
2. DSLRs are an image-making technology. Audio is typically a fleeting thought on camcorders; it is practically nonexistent on the DSLRs. When you include HD video in your still camera, and your customers are demanding a frame rate upgrade, it's not a huge leap to answer that call, especially since the HD video feature is a huge attribute and the upgrade (24p) is to achieve a highly sought after look. You are improving the imaging capability of your image-making device. Adding manual audio control does not, however, achieve the target cinema quality that adding 24p achieves. You are asking an image-making company to improve their fleeting thought feature.
As others have stated, these cameras have unbalanced mini-jack inputs, so you couldn't use professional grade mics, which often use XLR (balanced) cables. An adapter adds the risk of noise.
And of course: It might be easy. It might be nothing more than releasing some firmware upgrade. But if it's anything they can make a profit off of down the line, as the manual control on the 60D draws crowds, then they will not release a firmware upgrade. Canon is in no danger of losing the HDSLR market share, a position they have earned by responding to the market.
In-camera audio (especially when used with a Rode VideoMic or a Sennheiser wireless lav with the unbalanced connector) sounds perfectly fine in a lot of different situations I shoot in, and having the ability to know that I can manually control the audio when I want as small a setup as possible is a great option.
However, I bypassed this argument entirely, because I just upgraded to the 60D.
However, I bypassed this argument entirely, because I just upgraded to the 60D.
Nice point - again, it's not something that really makes or breaks anything - it's certainly not worth it to me to upgrade for that feature only.
But it'd be nice to have. 2 other Canon EOS cameras have it, all in the same basic "family" of cameras released in the past 2 years, and - perhaps more importantly - every other announced higher end DLSR from other companies have it.
Sort of like a microwave that has the "easy minute" option - at one point, it was a new feature. But in a short amount of time, it became such a no-brainer, easy thing to do, that virtually all microwaves have the feature. Would it stop you from buying a new microwave? It might if every single other model in the same price range had it.
Manual audio control is now all but a standard feature on this class of camera, couldn't possibly impact sales of other cameras - except the 60, which seems to exist primarily for a flip screen and manual gain control, and the cost to engage it would be tiny vs the good will and loyalty it could generate. Again, we're not talking the standard at the beginning of the year, but now.
Seriously, anyone buying the 60 for it's audio? It's for that dang screen (which I can respect). "Upgrading" for sound only, when the two cameras different only in one major way - the flip screen - seems, you know, a bit greedy.
I also just responded to their original response, giving them the link to this thread. Come on - send an email - what could it hurt?
But it'd be nice to have. 2 other Canon EOS cameras have it, all in the same basic "family" of cameras released in the past 2 years, and - perhaps more importantly - every other announced higher end DLSR from other companies have it.
Sort of like a microwave that has the "easy minute" option - at one point, it was a new feature. But in a short amount of time, it became such a no-brainer, easy thing to do, that virtually all microwaves have the feature. Would it stop you from buying a new microwave? It might if every single other model in the same price range had it.
Manual audio control is now all but a standard feature on this class of camera, couldn't possibly impact sales of other cameras - except the 60, which seems to exist primarily for a flip screen and manual gain control, and the cost to engage it would be tiny vs the good will and loyalty it could generate. Again, we're not talking the standard at the beginning of the year, but now.
Seriously, anyone buying the 60 for it's audio? It's for that dang screen (which I can respect). "Upgrading" for sound only, when the two cameras different only in one major way - the flip screen - seems, you know, a bit greedy.
I also just responded to their original response, giving them the link to this thread. Come on - send an email - what could it hurt?
Last edited:
ROCKMORE
Veteran
You got it bro.
Took 30 seconds.
And I disagree, Canon shouldn't reasonably expect people to sell a camera that was released 6 months ago, only to use that money to buy a camera that had manual audio.
And again, clearly people can make a difference, or the Mark II would still be shooting 30p w/ no manual audio. Perhaps none of the DSLRs would have the option w/o customer feedback.
And Canon emailed me a direct link to a customer relation guy as a result of the minute and a half I've spent with emailing them.
I'll update here to tell you what he said.
I sent an email to them with the link provided simply saying I love my T2i, but would like some form of audio control other then to disable it all together. It literally took me 1 minute to do this, so I say why not! What's the worst that could happen...you lose a minute! Here is the response I got after 30 minutes.
Dear Charles:
We appreciate your continued correspondence regarding your EOS Digital
Rebel T2i.
I'm sorry to hear that you have found the audio controls on your EOS
Digital Rebel T2i lacking. Thank you for writing to us with your
feedback regarding this issue. We appreciate you taking the time to
share your comments with us regarding your Canon product.
We have forwarded your comments to Canon USA through our Customer
Feedback process. This process allows us to capture important feedback
from our valued customers. As we constantly strive to improve our
products and services, your comments are vital to our continued success.
For important product updates, including available drivers and product
notifications, please visit Canon's Web site at
www.usa.canon.com/consumer.
I hope this information is helpful to you. Please let us know if we can
be of any further assistance with your EOS 550D.
Thank you for choosing Canon.
Sincerely,
Tim
Technical Support Representative
Dear Charles:
We appreciate your continued correspondence regarding your EOS Digital
Rebel T2i.
I'm sorry to hear that you have found the audio controls on your EOS
Digital Rebel T2i lacking. Thank you for writing to us with your
feedback regarding this issue. We appreciate you taking the time to
share your comments with us regarding your Canon product.
We have forwarded your comments to Canon USA through our Customer
Feedback process. This process allows us to capture important feedback
from our valued customers. As we constantly strive to improve our
products and services, your comments are vital to our continued success.
For important product updates, including available drivers and product
notifications, please visit Canon's Web site at
www.usa.canon.com/consumer.
I hope this information is helpful to you. Please let us know if we can
be of any further assistance with your EOS 550D.
Thank you for choosing Canon.
Sincerely,
Tim
Technical Support Representative
zstowasser
Member
I sent in my request for Canon 7D manual audio. Their response was that they take these requests very seriously. That was good to hear 
WhiteMonkey
Well-known member
I kinda got the feeling Canon was forgetting about the 7D when the T2i and then the 60D came out. No biggie, I got a great camera when the features vis. Price Point were good. They've only gotten better.
I use the camera like a camera too, shooting 24P, recording separate sound. In fact, I've got a new friend, Brian the sound guy and he's great, a wonderful complement to my work with the camera and post. It's perfect for that and commercial production. I've spent the last year getting to know the camera and I'm satified with it. If anything, I'd want more fps options like the AF100. Also, maybe, deeper color depth resolution like 4:2:2.
I use the camera like a camera too, shooting 24P, recording separate sound. In fact, I've got a new friend, Brian the sound guy and he's great, a wonderful complement to my work with the camera and post. It's perfect for that and commercial production. I've spent the last year getting to know the camera and I'm satified with it. If anything, I'd want more fps options like the AF100. Also, maybe, deeper color depth resolution like 4:2:2.
Well it's probably useless but I wrote about my seventh letter to them and this time told them my next camera would be Panasonic (which it probably will), not a big deal to them I'm sure but I did point out that I have spent about 10k on Canon equipment and a switch to another brand means my future money might be going elseware.
I do have the tone defeat option working fine but would like to have the second channel back if just to have a safety track.
I do have the tone defeat option working fine but would like to have the second channel back if just to have a safety track.
I've given up on Canon for updating their firmware for in camera audio. In addition to that after I shot with a client another interview I realized that quite honestly even if I had the ability to use audio in camera it will do me no good because the Canon does not have a headphone jack and rule of thumb is to always monitor your sound from the last part in the chain where your audio is actually recording to.
So since I can't do that I wouldn't trust the in camera audio. I'd be sweating bullets for each time I shot something and a client wanted perfect audio. I would never be 100% sure that I wasn't getting something like interference, hum or whatever until I somehow checked the footage on a laptop or until I got home.
Also after looking into it, the preamps suck on the Canon.
The H4n has great preamps and they even added a firmware update to control each level separately. Even Zoom listens to their customers.
As for Canon and customer service, I've never had to send anything in for repair or deal with customer service but I can tell you from my DVX-100A days that Panasonic's customer service is really terrible. (now I'm only speaking for myself, don't want to discredit them). But their customer service lines are always busy. Do a Google search and look up all the complaints. But maybe other people have had better experiences with them. Quite honestly I just think all customer service sucks. You just take the lesser of the bad.
Quite honestly I'd rather shoot on a Canon product than a Panasonic. Just prefer their optical quality in everything they engineer. Not to say Panasonic's is bad but Canon really understands lenses and image processing. I mean that's the whole reason why these DSLR's are so good.
So to wrap up, I was itching for the in camera audio but after months of thought and working on projects I changed my mind. I really don't want to depend on the in camera audio.
So since I can't do that I wouldn't trust the in camera audio. I'd be sweating bullets for each time I shot something and a client wanted perfect audio. I would never be 100% sure that I wasn't getting something like interference, hum or whatever until I somehow checked the footage on a laptop or until I got home.
Also after looking into it, the preamps suck on the Canon.
The H4n has great preamps and they even added a firmware update to control each level separately. Even Zoom listens to their customers.
As for Canon and customer service, I've never had to send anything in for repair or deal with customer service but I can tell you from my DVX-100A days that Panasonic's customer service is really terrible. (now I'm only speaking for myself, don't want to discredit them). But their customer service lines are always busy. Do a Google search and look up all the complaints. But maybe other people have had better experiences with them. Quite honestly I just think all customer service sucks. You just take the lesser of the bad.
Quite honestly I'd rather shoot on a Canon product than a Panasonic. Just prefer their optical quality in everything they engineer. Not to say Panasonic's is bad but Canon really understands lenses and image processing. I mean that's the whole reason why these DSLR's are so good.
So to wrap up, I was itching for the in camera audio but after months of thought and working on projects I changed my mind. I really don't want to depend on the in camera audio.