Is anyone using in cam audio with xlr mics/lavs? (ON A7iii)

Chris Johnston

Chris Johnston

Veteran
I'm certainly not knowledgeable on how good the preamps are on the sony a7iii but thought i'd give it a try in order to slim down kit to bare minimums. (the in cam mic doesn't seem that bad...but I need lavs)

Ideally. I could find a 3.5 to 2ea XLR female connector but i'm curious what others are using.
Types of connectors / lavs/ hardware in general if anyone is even using in cam mic.


edit: Do you need phantom 48v in to the 3.5?
 
Chris Johnston said:
I'm certainly not knowledgeable on how good the preamps are on the sony a7iii but thought i'd give it a try in order to slim down kit to bare minimums. (the in cam mic doesn't seem that bad...but I need lavs)

Ideally. I could find a 3.5 to 2ea XLR female connector but i'm curious what others are using.
Types of connectors / lavs/ hardware in general if anyone is even using in cam mic.

edit: Do you need phantom 48v in to the 3.5?
Click to expand...

I do in-cam audio. But the way to do it to get acceptable results is, IMHO, to use an external mic preamp. Specifically, I'm using an SD MixPre-D to feed my camera. It has three major things that the camera does not have: excellent preamps, excellent limiters, and excellent metering. The MixPre-D is designed to make it easy to feed a camera what it needs, from line-in to mic-in, from 3.5mm stereo plug to XLRs. All that, and there's lots of them on the used market for really good prices. What's not to like?

As to lavs, I'm using Oscar SoundTech 802s (for over clothes -- visible in the shot. Use the 801s for hiding the mic under clothes). The OST lavs are perhaps the best value in audio. Or at least, our kind of audio.

Like most all lavs, the OSTs require plugin power. So if you go this route, get the manufacturer's XLR(phantom power)-to-plugin converter. With a converter you can basically treat the lavs as you would any condenser mic that needs XLR and phantom power.

OST, and most companies selling lavs, will terminate your mic anyway you want. I've got mine terminated for my Sennheiser G3 wireless mics, and the XLR-to-plug in converter terminated the same way. That way I can use the lavs either wired or wireless. But they sound better wired, so that's how I use them unless I can't get it done wired. I only use wireless as a last resort.
 
Thanks for the info Bruce
I looked at the Sound Devices Mixpre but opted to go with a Zoom H5 instead. Cost was the biggest driving factor as this slimmed down rig will be used for quicky web type "head and shoulders" shoots where carting around 2 FS7's didn't make sense.
I decided to go with the h5 vs h4 because the "guts" are supposed to be the same as the H6, and the h4n (even cheaper ) didn't have both a headphone jack and a line out to the cam.
(just wanted the option of monitoring both the cam audio and/or the recorder audio.)
 
The H4n is a truly dreadful recorder that should be shot on sight, it doesn't belong in 2018 (the new H4n Pro is marginally better however). Actually *ALL* the H series from Zoom are not what I'd recommend, they're what gave Zoom an extremely bad reputation to be avoided by pros (the new F series however are truly amazing, completely the opposite of what you'd have expected of the old Zoom company and are turning their reputation around in the location sound world).


MixPreD is fairly outdated, I'd recommend for you the MixPre3 (if you're not going for the Zoom F4, which is my first pick recommendation, or the new Zoom F8n).

If costs and rigging are a really major driving factor then I'd seriously consider the Tascam DR70D or DR60Dmk2 over the H5

http://ironfilm.co.nz/which-sound-r...various-indie-priced-sound-recorders-in-2017/
 
Check out the Sermonic AX-100, AX-101, SR-PAX-2 and a number of other versions. Very inexpensive mixers for DSLR type cameras. I'm just testing them now. If they are clean enough they will certainly fit the bill for these cameras. Available from B&H, Amazon, Adorama etc. The passive ones should be clean and may be all you need for many applications.
 
On the A7S I/II I used a simple Y splitter with two Sennheiser G3 wireless receivers. With output gain set high enough (so camera preamps can be lower), the quality was excellent.

I'm now using a Zoom F4 into the 1DX II in the studio (too big/clunky for handheld for me- use G3 and wireless lav or wireless shotgun). F4 quality is a lot better than the C300 II's preamps (previous studio camera), fine for the studio but would recommend MixPre (any) to get the analog limiters (and a bit fuller sound). The F4 and MixPres are very low noise and clean.

Sony makes pretty good preamps- this could be the simplest/most-reliable way to get XLR inputs into the A7 III: https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1078571-REG/sony_xlr_k2m_xlr_box_mi.html (currently $100 off). MixPre's will sound better, however more complex/heavy + power issues to deal with. A single channel G3 (or similar wireless) would be the lightest/simplest high-quality on camera option (+ mic is on/near talent). Simplest/lightest XLR mic-on-camera would be the battery powered XLR mics with a 1/8" adapter, e.g. Rode NTG2 (I still use one for that purpose).
 
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