Schoeps CMIT5U & a Leica F1.5 Lens Camera- 2 greats like peanut butter & chocolate?
After selling the C300 II and looking for smaller+lighter A video camera, got kinda burnt out as each new job applicant had some crippling issues (nothing really better than the 1DX II (our new A camera) for what we shoot). So I went into the 'camera museum closest' and rummaged around and found a ~10 year old Panasonic TM700. Back in the day this was a highly rated camera with 1080p60 video and a Leica Dicomar F1.5 lens (shallow DOF? nope!), pretty excellent IBIS, 12x optical zoom, and the vaunted by vloggers- flippy screen! The Achille's Heel of the TM700 was (is) a super loud fan so unless you're recording jets taking off at close range in the middle of a heavy metal rock concert next to 12' speakers, you'll need an external shotgun or lav (you know, like at military airshows).
I was curious if the Schoeps CMIT5U could hide the loud fan at close range mounted on camera (for vlog style shooting) and remembered I had a Tascam DR 100 II (soon to be on Craigslist haha) which could be used as a preamp. The DR 100 II doesn't have a line/mic output, so I tried both line out and headphone/speaker out and found the headphone out turned down to 4 sounded the least terrible haha (don't have a line => mic attenuator cable). Using some Focal Listen headphones to monitor, I heard a lot of let's call it "DR 100 II charm" along with added TM700 headphone out "color" plus low frequency walking rumble so I thought it wasn't going to sound very good in post (though figured it might clean up with Premiere Pro's new DeNoise filter).
Part of the inspiration for this test was Soderbergh's recent iPhone films. Was curious if I could make the TM700 look mildly interesting in 2019 and maybe decent audio would trick the brain into seeing higher quality video haha. Here's the result:
(Sorry guys, Jacqui only wants to shoot on the "good" cameras haha so the 'not on camera guy' is on camera)
How's it sound & look? Did the audio make the video suck less?
I've been searching for a small camera preamp to mount above or below the camera: all devices on the market IMO aren't very good designs- big, ugly, clunky, with many looking one click above homemade. While the DR 100 Mark II is soon to be released into the wild, I realized I could mount the preamp/recorder to a waist belt with a simple clip like this: https://www.dvestore.com/sound-guys-solutions-25-20-clip-belt-clip-with-stainless-1-4-20-bolt/ . If there's a small audio bag for the Zoom F4 (currently used in the studio to feed the 1DX II) which can clip to the belt (so it won't flop around even if using the shoulder strap) that might be better.
When I get a another block of time to experiment, I think the Audio Technica BP4029 mid-side might actually sound better for on-camera POV/vlogging style shooting as the stereo mid-side can have a really nice 3D quality (it's a bit noisier than the CMIT5U (mostly the side mic)). If mounting the (relatively giant) 4 (XLR) channel Zoom F4 to the belt, that would also allow for a cool binaural HRTF stereo3D (headphones) recording with the Ambeo! So funny never thought of belt mounting the audio device before this (for video recording) haha.
After selling the C300 II and looking for smaller+lighter A video camera, got kinda burnt out as each new job applicant had some crippling issues (nothing really better than the 1DX II (our new A camera) for what we shoot). So I went into the 'camera museum closest' and rummaged around and found a ~10 year old Panasonic TM700. Back in the day this was a highly rated camera with 1080p60 video and a Leica Dicomar F1.5 lens (shallow DOF? nope!), pretty excellent IBIS, 12x optical zoom, and the vaunted by vloggers- flippy screen! The Achille's Heel of the TM700 was (is) a super loud fan so unless you're recording jets taking off at close range in the middle of a heavy metal rock concert next to 12' speakers, you'll need an external shotgun or lav (you know, like at military airshows).
I was curious if the Schoeps CMIT5U could hide the loud fan at close range mounted on camera (for vlog style shooting) and remembered I had a Tascam DR 100 II (soon to be on Craigslist haha) which could be used as a preamp. The DR 100 II doesn't have a line/mic output, so I tried both line out and headphone/speaker out and found the headphone out turned down to 4 sounded the least terrible haha (don't have a line => mic attenuator cable). Using some Focal Listen headphones to monitor, I heard a lot of let's call it "DR 100 II charm" along with added TM700 headphone out "color" plus low frequency walking rumble so I thought it wasn't going to sound very good in post (though figured it might clean up with Premiere Pro's new DeNoise filter).
Part of the inspiration for this test was Soderbergh's recent iPhone films. Was curious if I could make the TM700 look mildly interesting in 2019 and maybe decent audio would trick the brain into seeing higher quality video haha. Here's the result:
How's it sound & look? Did the audio make the video suck less?
I've been searching for a small camera preamp to mount above or below the camera: all devices on the market IMO aren't very good designs- big, ugly, clunky, with many looking one click above homemade. While the DR 100 Mark II is soon to be released into the wild, I realized I could mount the preamp/recorder to a waist belt with a simple clip like this: https://www.dvestore.com/sound-guys-solutions-25-20-clip-belt-clip-with-stainless-1-4-20-bolt/ . If there's a small audio bag for the Zoom F4 (currently used in the studio to feed the 1DX II) which can clip to the belt (so it won't flop around even if using the shoulder strap) that might be better.
When I get a another block of time to experiment, I think the Audio Technica BP4029 mid-side might actually sound better for on-camera POV/vlogging style shooting as the stereo mid-side can have a really nice 3D quality (it's a bit noisier than the CMIT5U (mostly the side mic)). If mounting the (relatively giant) 4 (XLR) channel Zoom F4 to the belt, that would also allow for a cool binaural HRTF stereo3D (headphones) recording with the Ambeo! So funny never thought of belt mounting the audio device before this (for video recording) haha.
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