First A1 Injury...

DCCowan

DCCowan

Active member
I contemplated if I should share this or not, but I finally decided I might so that others can be aware.

Recently, I made a trip to the Grand Canyon with some friends... in a hurry, I grabbed the A1 and took the 270 mile journey. Man... the images I got out of this thing were amazing. Not too many cameras can do the canyon justice, but this one does...

I couldn't wait to look at the footage when we got home, so I connected everything and discovered that there was NO AUDIO. I checked, double-checked, and triple checked the settings and finally realized that this was due to damage.

*slaps forehead*

In our haste, I didn't have the A1 in it's case. And somehow during our transit, the microphone that comes with the A1 was ever so gently bent enough to the point that something internally broke. :( I realy don't get how this happened because it was not tossed about and nothing was placed on top of it. But is was my own dang fault this happened by taking this without its case. I is not too bright.

Still, I want to caution everyone to be mighty cautious with the mic... it's somewhat fragile. Just a word to wise from a man with Forrest Gump's IQ. :dankk2:
 
Yea, that mic is really poorly built. The first day I got it I noticed right away that it's not securely attached and even now it can be bent back and forth with a bit of push. Makes me nervous.
 
that sucks dc. i travelled with the a1 in a padded backpack on a recent trip and, even with some unintentional throwing around, it came through fine. can you report back how much the repair costs were? i'm curious what canon factory service charges nowadays. if i recall from my xl2 days, there was a base charge regardless of what needed to be repaired, and additional parts and labor were tacked on after that.

also, the wobble on the mic is by design -- it's actually a shock protection feature. i can see how this would make the cam more susceptible to damage tho.
 
whoa, that sucks. well, just add some cool music to the footage and make a montage..

Post some of it too, I would love to see the canyon through the eye of a canon. lol
 
I'm not that familiar with the A1's mic but this sounds very much like a design issue with some older Sony cameras. The audio came through the shock mount on a flexible PCB and over time the flexible PCB's tracks would fracture leading to intermittent audio.
 
I noticed on the XL2 that the shotgun mic holder had a rubber-ish connector and was very slightly "bendy", which I can only assume was to help isolate the mic and protect from mild bumps.

Personally, I think it was a good idea. I don't think the XL1s I used own had that.
.
 
I too have almost broken my A1's mic, it has some wierd rubber spacer ring which is supposed to be "shock resistant" but its more like brake persistant meaning its easy to mess up. Well, just order a nice XLR mic for the top now ;)
 
Well I never did like stock mikes from the beginning. Didn't like the DVX nor this A1's. In fact I have mine turn off since I messed with it for a week on a shoot. Decided to use the reliable oktava and hooked it up to the mike holder and never went back. So much clearer..especially when you have a hyper cap on it. So in a way it is nothing lost...you might be better off just using an external anyways.
 
To be honest mine could very well be broken and I dont know. Not that I have done anything to damage it (I dont think), I have just never used it.
 
The first A1 that I bought I sent back for a refund becauase the mic was wobbly I thought it was broken, I got my refund and bought another from another source two months later thinking it might be a faulty batch but this one is the same I think it is a realy bad design.
 
regardless, thank god its finally time for you to get a REAL mic to go along with the awesome camera. Get the AT4073a at least.
 
Dxmetal said:
regardless, thank god its finally time for you to get a REAL mic to go along with the awesome camera. Get the AT4073a at least.
Click to expand...

Indeed. Thanks for the advice!
 
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