Dropouts with onboard mic

[Goldmond]

Has anyone ever experienced dropouts with the onboard mic? I taped a shoot a while back with lavs and had tons of dropouts so I thought the lavs must be the problem so I shot again using just the onboard mic and I still have dropouts! I'm so confused (and possibly in trouble) could this be a cleaning issue?

-S

 

[ptalsky]

Seth, are you talking about the built in mic, or a mic attached to the camera? I've heard shotguns that, with enough of a hard bounce in the shock mount, can sound like it's dropping out.

If it's the built-in mic, doesn't really matter since that mic has very poor audio quality anyway.

Phil

 

[Goldmond]

It's the onboard mic which, yes, is crappy quality. This particular job doesn't require high quality sound, (they wanted it as cheap as possible) but it does require sound that you can understand. I'm also partly concerned about it for future projects. The other thing I was thinking it could be was the tape itself. The picture is fine, but could a bad tape cause sound dropouts without any interference in the picture quality? I shot the same footage for two days. First day I had dropouts, 2nd day was fine. The only thing I could think of it being now would be a bad tape.

 

[SMuir]

The picture is fine, but could a bad tape cause sound dropouts without any interference in the picture quality?

Its possible. If you're experiencing audio dropouts regardless of the mic you're using, it may well be a symptom of a problem with the transport.

I recently had a pinch roller give out during a (thankfully non-critical) shoot with my old TRV900, but that caused intermittent dropouts in both the audio and video.

My advice is to take the camera to a qualified repairperson. The inspection fee is a small price to pay for peace of mind.

 

[Goldmond]

I think that's a good idea, I'm down in Mexico, but there may still be a qualified place to take it in to. I'll check it out.