One thing I hate about the 370

E

eddo

Active member
Adjusting audio levels. The knurled knobs have to be pushed in to turn. That might be
because some engineer at Panasonic thought it would keep you from bumping the knob,
but I've never seen it on any other camera I've owned from Sony or JVC. If the camera is locked down (say, on an interview) and I need to adjust audio while recording, pushing the audio knobs in to turn the levels up or down bumps the camera enough to ruin the shot. One of my camera operators just had the same thing happen to her on a shoot yesterday.
 
Why not just use the F. audio level dial on the front of the camera, just above the main user button? Rather than adjusting audio levels on the camera, one should be using a preamp/mixer anyway.
 
I agree with this one. I to need to adjust audio often while live and you have to push them in. Now, I know you can adjust to use the the front audio dial which is handy but you have to go in the menu and every shoot is different. Sometimes you need to control only the cam mic, etc...
Other Panny cams do NOT have this push in feature. FYI.
 
Kolor-Pikker said:
Why not just use the F. audio level dial on the front of the camera, just above the main user button? Rather than adjusting audio levels on the camera, one should be using a preamp/mixer anyway.
Click to expand...

The last thing I need when doing a one-crew-member interview is to lug around a mixer. When the budget is there, I bring my audio person. I may be wrong, but my understanding of the front control is that I can set it to control Channel 1, Channel 2, or both. If I have a wireless lav on the subject and have the on-camera mic on as well, I can't use the Front audio control because it will raise or lower both (evenly) when I want to adjust them individually.
Ed
 
eddo said:
The last thing I need when doing a one-crew-member interview is to lug around a mixer. When the budget is there, I bring my audio person. I may be wrong, but my understanding of the front control is that I can set it to control Channel 1, Channel 2, or both. If I have a wireless lav on the subject and have the on-camera mic on as well, I can't use the Front audio control because it will raise or lower both (evenly) when I want to adjust them individually.
Ed
Click to expand...

Hallo Eddo! I think that all you need is the front audio control. If you're using a wireless mic you have to adjust it before shooting and never adjust it again! You have to set the level near the -6db on the camera, but you have to adjust the mic's volume from the bodypack, not from the cam. I do a lot of audio works and the only thing that matters when you use a wireless mic is how you position it. After few tests and a bit of speaking the human voice will stay in the same volume range for a while. I do it all the times, and doesn't matter if i loose 10 minutes or more during working sessions for my tests!
That's only a suggestion!
Bests,
Roberto
 
Hi Roberto,
That's not my experience at all. For the past 2 days I've interviewed 5 people who all had very even-toned voices, so the audio levels stayed constant throughout their interviews. The day before I interviewed 2 people whose dynamics were all over the place. I could never use the lav level settings to adjust levels in the middle of an interview, it has to be done in camera (as it should be done). I set my lavs for the proper balance of S/N and leave them there, then set tone between camera and mixer. But if I'm not using a mixer for an interview I rely on the camera for audio levels so back to my original issue.
Ed
 
eddo said:
Hi Roberto,
That's not my experience at all. For the past 2 days I've interviewed 5 people who all had very even-toned voices, so the audio levels stayed constant throughout their interviews. The day before I interviewed 2 people whose dynamics were all over the place. I could never use the lav level settings to adjust levels in the middle of an interview, it has to be done in camera (as it should be done). I set my lavs for the proper balance of S/N and leave them there, then set tone between camera and mixer. But if I'm not using a mixer for an interview I rely on the camera for audio levels so back to my original issue.
Ed
Click to expand...

Yes i know what you mean! This is what i usually use when i'm lazy...

http://www.directproaudio.com/product.cfm?directid=28200

"The unit is also powered by two 9-Volt alkaline batteries".

It's small,cheap and you can easly control volume on the road... but don't forget batteries inside!!!

Roberto
 
videoatlanta said:
You can set the front audio knob to control ch. 1 or Ch.2 or both.
Click to expand...

I think that the problem is still there. Eddo want to have two audio controls for his recording, but he doesn't like the way buttons works on the camera. You can set to pilot one channel from the front and the other one from the back but you have to push the button a bit and turn it. Well if your tripod is not fixed well you may have some earthquakes in the image! So i think that a little three channel mixer can do the job! I use it all the times and you can watch the picture from your 7" monitor or camera LCD and control audio volume during shot without touch the camera.
 
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That's correct Roberto, I want it to be as easy as all my previous cameras, from Beta-SP to HDV.

Videoatlanta, If you read my previous post, you'll see that I said you have a choice of 1, 2, or both channels, but it has its problems.
Ed
 
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