G2 VIDEO - noise of PRIME LENSES

J

Jerry_R

Member
Hello!

I attached 20mm and 45mm to G2 and focusing sound in video is terrible - with both: AF and MF!

I think it was much more better with GH1 which I used to have. It had built in microphone in different location, probably that explains it.

I wonderr if using external microphone will make these focusing sounds disappear?
Or only will make them weaker?

PS: When I attach 14-45mm it is much more better. But with slow zoom it reminds a camcoder, I planned to use faster primes mainly.
 
Any onboard mic is going to pick up mechanical borne vibration and translate that into handling noise. It's unavoidable whether you're auto focusing a native lens or twisting an old Canon FD. Best to treat a G-series cam's onboard audio as a guide track and go outboard for quality audio.

I recently bought a Zoom H1 for this task, and while it's quite a bit more plastic, cheap, and fiddly than I'd like, it was only $100 and the X-Y stereo sound quality is excellent. But even mounted on a hotshoe adapter with tripod screw, it still picks up manual focus noise due to mechanical vibration. So I'm playing with various fixes to decouple the Zoom from the camera body while still maintaining a decent mount that doesn't wobble. I don't care for the whole DSLR cage trip but I may have to go that route if I want to isolate the Zoom from camera handling noise. Hopefully some internal damping (goodbye warranty) and removal of those plastic hoops in front of the mics will reduce handling noise acceptably without having to go full cage.
 
I just opened my older videos, recorded with GH1 and GF1 - with 20mm and 45mm primes in calm room:

GH1 - AF noise is almost unnoticable
GF1 - you can hear AF in calm environment - only slightly
G2 - you can hear AF terribly all the time (you can hear lens motor even in manual mode)

I assume external mic. will allow me to forget about it. Otherwise - for me G2 with mentioned primes is unusable.
 
I think manual focus works best when shooting video with DSLRs, even with an AF lens. If you're shooting a casual home video, AF and the attendant focus hunting and noise pickup isn't the end of the world, but for pro work I always focus manually. I also don't trust AF to always nail focus where I wish it to be, so I prefer to rely on my own eye, aided and abetted by an LCDLF LCD screen magnifier. It's a lot like the camera equivalent of driving a stick. At first what seems awkward soon becomes second nature and then you'll find you prefer MF for stills as well.
 
I still can't believe, how G2 sound can be sooo much worse than GF1... It does not matter if I use AF or MANUAL FOCUS - the sound is present anyway, whenever lens changes focus... Here are few samples:

OK - focusing sound not present:
- GH1 + 20mm: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_G_qsNc6OR0
- GH1 + 45mm: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKxDa2bIAzQ
- G2 + 7-14mm: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oo_9Itor6kw
- G2 + 14-45mm: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5YyhemuctA

ACCEPTABLE - focusing sound almost not present:
- GF1 + 20mm: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTMlSgIPijo
- GF1 + 45mm: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSFgOlWCd1k

NOT OK - terrible focusing sound present:
- G2 + 20mm: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWYaKaPgF6o
- G2 + 45mm: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R03OHBIRHq8
- E-P1 + 45mm: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkHnPLeURJE

It really seems, that location of microphone affects mostly. Hopefully using external microphone - eg. like on below movie - will solve the issue completely. But it is shame in my eyes... Another accessory to grab, pay for... GH1 internal mic is not perfect, but fully acceptable for "family" shots. G2 - with primes - unfortunately NOT... PEN even worse.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzoVKY_FP3M

I start to think, that Panasonic should only release GHx series and GFx - looking on competition of A55 and Samsung.
 
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Here is comparison of microphone between G2 and GH2...

comparedtog2top.jpg
 
appears that the G2 uses internal mic? gh1 has its mic mounted outside so less prone to picking up noise. with my gh1 i can pick up noise from the 20mm lens when it is dead quiet.
 
Um, reality check, okay? Since when did anyone ever get good audio from a camcorder? Which is what these new video-enabled DSLRs are at the end of the day. I mean, FFS, my old Canon Mini-DV's internal mic was such a piece of under-engineered crap it picked up more of my mouth breathing than it did any subject I ever tried shooting. All of our baby videos sound like Jason from Halloween is behind the camera. This was/is par for the course for consumer camcorders, and whatever video miracles are happening in today's DSLRs, none of them has a better internal mic than any POS camcorder of the last ten years (ironically, the ignoble Flip has a much better internal mic than any DSLR, from the 5DII on down).

Parsing whether the GH2's mic is worse than the GH1's is silly. They ALL suck, my GF1's included. That's why I got a Zoom stereo audio recorder for when I want the sound to be as good as the picture. For all other times, I accept that the sound is going to be intelligible enough to hear what people are saying, period. And I also accept that an internal mic which is able to pick up sounds from across a soccer field is certainly going to pick up the sounds of an autofocusing lens a few millimeters below it. I live with it, and I try to breathe through my nose now.

MR Fanny said:
appears that the G2 uses internal mic? gh1 has its mic mounted outside so less prone to picking up noise. with my gh1 i can pick up noise from the 20mm lens when it is dead quiet.
Click to expand...
 
shaveblog said:
Um, reality check, okay? Since when did anyone ever get good audio from a camcorder? Which is what these new video-enabled DSLRs are at the end of the day. I mean, FFS, my old Canon Mini-DV's internal mic was such a piece of under-engineered crap it picked up more of my mouth breathing than it did any subject I ever tried shooting. All of our baby videos sound like Jason from Halloween is behind the camera. This was/is par for the course for consumer camcorders, and whatever video miracles are happening in today's DSLRs, none of them has a better internal mic than any POS camcorder of the last ten years (ironically, the ignoble Flip has a much better internal mic than any DSLR, from the 5DII on down).

Parsing whether the GH2's mic is worse than the GH1's is silly. They ALL suck, my GF1's included. That's why I got a Zoom stereo audio recorder for when I want the sound to be as good as the picture. For all other times, I accept that the sound is going to be intelligible enough to hear what people are saying, period. And I also accept that an internal mic which is able to pick up sounds from across a soccer field is certainly going to pick up the sounds of an autofocusing lens a few millimeters below it. I live with it, and I try to breathe through my nose now.
Click to expand...

Im sorry but is this directed to me, re reality check? Still have yet to understand the etiquette of quoting..ha. Acceptability of audio quality relative to the user and intended use. the point being made in this thread is the unacceptable pickup of noise from a lens on a body that provides video feature, it defeats the purpose. Even shitty camcorders don't pick up motor noise when focusing/zooming (as badly as the G2 + 20mm) wouldn't you agree? Did you mean G2 vs GH2 instead of Gh2 vs GH1?. And to say they all suck is just wet blanket statement, there are levels of suck. I find the GH1 mic is quite acceptable, though alot of my shooting doesn't involve me holding the camera infront of my face, I am a nose breather by nature though. works quite well at events where you want uni directional sound, i ended up using the gh1 audio as the zoom only picked up audio at whatever it was pointed at, which is what it is designed for of course =)
 
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