DVX (Built in) Mic Preamps

[Michael Carter]

Been doing some YouTube vids as part of an SEO experiment... recorded my guitar amp with a Sure 57, plugged into one of the DVX100b XLR inputs. And man, those are really good sounding pre's and converters.

I had also recorded a 2nd mic straight into ProTools, through my Apogee pres and converters, and planned on manually aligning everything and deleting the DVX audio tracks. But man, the DVX pres are punchy, tight, and very "musical". (And I say this after a long & agonizing bout of preamp shopping for my ProTools rig).

I know that being able to stick a good mic right in front of a (very loud) source makes a big diff to those used to capturing location sound... but a bad pre is a bad pre. I'm really surprised Panasonic did such a nice job with the audio side of the camera.

There's a non you-tubed version at this link with better audio if you're bored. Just felt like posting my surprised reaction.

 

[Casalen]

That's long been one of the features people most rant about when it comes to the DVX. It surpasses most everything else in its level with that ability, as does the HVX. It may not be the highest end camera around, but it really is amazingly well made. And that was before the prosumer market exploded as much as it has. Hence why Panasonic got such a following. Explains why my favorite general purpose videography and filmmaking forum is called 'DVXUser'.

 

[Michael Carter]

I've got a friend with a pretty high-end production business, if you've got cable you've seen some shows he's developed. We had a few drinks the other night and got on the subject of cameras, high-def, what's new... but he got emotionally poetic about the DVX "look", said he still uses it whenever he can get away with standard def - "nothing's that pretty" was his take.

Me, I came up as a still shooter, doing lots of fashion, and started studying cinematic lighting and using those techniques and gear mixed with all my studio strobes. Moving to the DVX was pretty easy in that case, and I still have the same reaction - "Man, that's pretty!" And the learning curve was fast, too. Really easy piece of gear to get great results with.