Run&Gun
Veteran
So, I am curious about the scenarios where the on-camera audio is being used vs the audio being recorded on a mixer. I get the scenario where there is no separate audio recording other than on camera, where that becomes the primary audio recording. I also understand very fast turnaround scenarios where the extra step of syncing would be a problem. I'm just curious to hear more from those who are indicating that the on-camera audio is used preferentially or treated as primary even when there is a separate and more complete set of tracks being recorded by a sound person via mixer and recorder.
My experience with that latter scenario (and again tell me if this isn't typical) is that any and all audio sources whether wired or wireless are recorded on separate tracks by the sound person, and then a mix track is sent via wireless hop to the camera as a reference. For that on-camera audio to be used as the primary source seems illogical given the inability to separate out the tracks plus the degradation of having been transmitted twice.
Does that scenario really exist? Oy vey.
I'll field this and give my .02, Charles. I do a lot of work that ends up on network TV. Some of it is (very) quick turn, like when we're at an NFL game and shoot an LTT post game with a key player from the winning team and that needs to run on SC shortly after being fed in. But even on things like sit-down interviews, a lot of times separately recorded ISO tracks are unnecessary(we still record them, just in case, though). Especially when it's just the subject or subject and reporter (one or two tracks). Perfect example: about two weeks ago, I had to shoot some sit-down interviews on my Amira. It was just the individual subjects(one at a time), we had them lav'd and boomed. Split tracks recording in camera fed straight from the mixer and when we were done, we fed them out of the camera on a bonded cellular pack system, kinda like it was news, but not. It was just a way to get the footage back quickly and easily. Audio and video married together. They didn't have to do anything except cut the bites that they wanted/needed. I doubt anyone outside of the high-end audio post world could tell a difference between the ISO tracks recorded in the mixer and the split tracks recorded in camera. And they may not even be able to.
Even though everyone thinks that it's trivial to sync separate audio and video files, sometimes it's not, because stuff is being fed in and they're not dealing with files with metadata. And some producers just prefer to work with the camera files with the audio already married vs. separate files, when they can. And honestly, if you have a good mixer, the camera audio is usually more than "good enough"(I dislike that term and philosophy, BTW). It wasn't that long ago that we only had two channels and everything was mixed down to that. I'm not suggesting that we go backwards, just that quality work can and is still being done like that.
And having a news/sports background and shooting a lot of high-end sports doc work, I never shoot without a quality nat mic on my camera(all of my VariCams have stereo nat mics and my F55 and Amira both have Sanken CS-M1 mics). Even when I have an audio guy, the nat mic is always feeding the cam(most cameras have at least four accessible audio tracks, now, and I have the nats going to at least two of them). Also, most modern cameras, in addition to analog line and mic signals, can take AES digital audio in, so you can do end-to-end digital audio from the mixer to the cam. Some of the audio guys I work with that are running Lectro digital cam hops send AES in on our Amiras, wirelessly. I've also had one of my guys do four split channels AES into an F55 when they were doing some big follow job a few years ago. I mean even the Alexa 35 has an optional audio module built by Sonosax, so that it can record quality, multi-channel audio in-camera. If all that was ever needed was scratch or reference, they could have just left it at the multi-pin line input that's on the main body and the two built-in mics on the front. Yes, I ordered the Sonosax module... ; ) I think everyone I know that already got their A35's have the audio module.
So, yes, I get it in the narrative world and we do plenty of second system sound in my world, too, but there is still a lot of production that wants and requires quality audio in-camera.