HVX200 Zoom Noise?

A

AlexBat

New member
Just got a hvx200 and you can hear the zoom on the camera mic. Did anybody have success in fixing this problem?
 
why would you be concerned about noise picked up on a camera mic?

Get a real microphone for your setup and go XLR in. It won't pick up that noise. Don't ever rely the camera mic for audio on ANY project (no matter how big/small) unless you're shooting without sound.
 
Hi Alex,

What cmb_1455 says makes good sense. In the interim you have two audio pod controls at the back of the camera. By turning these down you can reduce the sensitivity of the onboard mike as well as the external mikes.
 
yeah, the on-cam mic of any camera is never really going to be very good. Best thing is to get a decent "real" mic and isolate it away from the camera
 
Other solution is t go manual... and therefore bypass the noisy servo... but that's different. What actually bothers me most is actually this little click that comes in when you go from manual to servo...
 
I appreciate all the feedback. But this zoom is way to loud and needs to be looked at. The servo sounds like its working too hard. I hope panasonic can fix and quiet this zoom down. Unfortunately I just bought the camera so I'm not to happy that I have to bring it in to get looked at. I will update what happens at Panasonic.
 
AlexBat said:
But this zoom is way to loud and needs to be looked at. The servo sounds like its working too hard. I hope panasonic can fix and quiet this zoom down.
Click to expand...

It's possible you have a problem, but I rather doubt it. The AF and Zoom servos are really loud thru the onboard mics on that and similar cameras. I thought the same thing when I first got my 200A. Panny's tech dept. told me this was typical, and that they supplied the onboard mics so you'd have one, but didn't recommend using them unless you were operating the camera fully manual (i.e no autofocus, no rocker zoom, etc.).
 
Tomorrow I will talk to panasonic and will drop it off if need be. What has me angry is I have friends who have the same camera and their zoom is silent. Something has to be wrong. If you are standing in the same room as me you will hear the zoom. Just doesn't sound right.
 
I have a HVX202EN, and I do not pick up onboard zoom noise with the camera mike. I do have a off camera mike also, but have had no issue with zoom servo noise with the on camera mike.

One point may be the audio pods may be set to high or the other option of mike gain in one of the setup menus. Not sure where it is now. I did a lot of testing of audio when I first go the camera and set it up as best as I could using an external mike for channel's 1 and 2 with the camera mike recording to channel's 3 and 4. I know the on camera mikes are less than satisfactory, but you can get away with them in a pinch.
 
Last edited:
Stephenh said:
I have a HVX202EN, and I do not pick up onboard zoom noise with the camera mike. I do have a off camera mike also, but have had no issue with zoom servo noise with the on camera mike.
Click to expand...

Set your camera up on a tripod in a quiet room. Use autofocus and then pan around the room. Then stop panning and zoom in and out a few times. Do this while either using your external camera mounted mic or the internal mics. Play it all back thru your NLE on some good monitor speakers and I'd be very suprised if you didn't hear the servo motors. I have been able to hear it thru headphones while recording that way on a DVX100A, DVX100B, HVX200A and HPX170 as have a few colleagues I work with.

Also noteworthy is that if you are recording a high enough level of audio in your scene, this tends to mask the servo noise and may make it appear as if it doesn't exist. It's there, just at a significantly lower level than the intended audio.

I always use external non-camera mounted mics anyway, and nearly always manual focus, so I don't have this problem. This has just been my experience with these cameras, for what it's worth!
 
Hi DWG,

I appreciate what you are saying, but in real life when shooting with these camera's you are not in a quite room. In fact even if you are doing interviews in an internal environment, the ambient room noise will make it pretty impossible to pick up noticable servo noise if mike levels are setup correctly.

But I do agree with your view of a quite room, but then there are a lot of camera's that would fail that test in the pro-consumer market.
 
Well, I was just suggesting the quiet room for testing your camera. I tested mine in my studio with (2) computers running and a wall clock that my shotgun mic picked up seconds ticking like a gunshot. Even at this roughly 57 db ambient SPL the AF motor and zoom was pretty predominant in the audio playback. But, others may have had different experiences. Search on this forum...you will find a lot of info about this topic. We all seem to find what works best for our own situations. :)
 
I did go to Panasonic to check out my camera. The Tech said it did sound a bit louder than usual. We compared it to 2 other Hvx 200 cameras and yes the zoom was louder. But not horrible. I wish my zoom sounded like the other cameras, they had very little noise. The tech said if it gives me problems or gets worse he can change the zoom motor. He said problems like this come from the camera being dropped or banged around. But the camera is in great physical condition so its hard to determine the cause. He said there was a chance the camera would need a new lens if there is more of a problem with installing a new zoom motor. That would be a hit to the wallet since I just bought the camera last week. He said try using the camera as is and if it bothers me that much to bring it in. I will use the camera as is. You can say how much do you use the zoom, there's always manual zoom, external mics will reduce the noise and I know they will. I'm just annoyed that I just got the camera and had to deal with this. I rolled the dice on a camera from ebay what can I say. My advice to all is give a used camera a thorough check,
something I failed to do. Thanks to all for the feedback. Greatly appreciated.
 
Hi AlexBat,

This is the problem with this mass produced, what I call an assembly camera, which does not go through the same quality checks that you would pay for a top professional Digibeta camera. Nor would you expect it to, given the price that you pay for it.

What why the CCD senser varies in alignment for one HVX to another. I have been very lucky with my HVX202EN which was probably released 12 or so months after the original HVX200. And I also appreciate what DGW is pointing out, but I have done the test's on my HVX and yes if I was in a very quite room where sound can resonate off walls with no other intervening noise I could probably hear my servo zoom. But in general my camera is one of the more quite assemblies made by Panasonic.

And that is the key reason why these camera's vary widely in quality and performance. It is production line pro-consumer camera built to a market value with quality control passing if within a certain tolerance. Which means two camera's will not be identical in as much as certain problems or issues. And after all that it is still one of the best dollar for value HD camera's available in it's market price.

And by no means no disrespect to any other posters or forum members. I would suggest experimenting with your particular unit, learn as much as you can through testing and evaluate. I still think you will enjoy the experience with the camera.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top