Here is a visually stunning Nikon D4 demo (http://vimeo.com/34666308). These guys obviously put their hearts, time, talent (and a crapload of accessory toys) into the visuals. Seems like a pretty significant investment. What do you think of the audio quality (recorded straight into the camera), especially the interviews that anchor the entire piece?
Nikon D4 Audio
- Thread starter gibbygoo
- Start date
Richard Crowley
Veteran
The sync audio was adequate, but nowhere near as technically impressive as the video. Of course from a source like Nikon, that is what I would expect. The voices seemed distorted, compressed, and bandwidth limited. What one would expect from a $30 microphone, although I assume they used 100s (or 1000s) of $$$ worth of audio equipment.
I assume they used decent shotgun mics and a mixer ahead of the camera. IMHO, the fact that they didn't mention any audio equipment or crew in the credits or in the blog was indicative that sound was not the object of this demonstration.
They were very clever to cover all the dialog with a heavy music bed that distracted and covered the less-than-stellar audio quality. This is why people use double-system sound when shooting things where audio is important.
I assume they used decent shotgun mics and a mixer ahead of the camera. IMHO, the fact that they didn't mention any audio equipment or crew in the credits or in the blog was indicative that sound was not the object of this demonstration.
They were very clever to cover all the dialog with a heavy music bed that distracted and covered the less-than-stellar audio quality. This is why people use double-system sound when shooting things where audio is important.
I was listening on Sony 7506 headphones. It just sounds awful. But I'm guessing that headphones may have made it sound worse than what most viewers would experience. My guess is that they didn't do much more than mount a consumer videomic on the camera. If the visuals were half as good and the audio half as bad, this piece would be far better off, IMO.
No, they most definitely used lavs for at least some of the interviews. Listen to the second sound bite, at :44. That muffled, throaty sound comes from having the lav under thick fabric and often nestled in the natural dip of the neck just above the sternum.
I agree, though, that the camera audio on this piece is mediocre at best.