XHA1 Audio Feature Film Quality is it possible???

B

bentramer81

Well-known member
I have been shooting with my A1 for about 3 years now and my audio quality has been very poor the whole time, so poor that it made me realize that making a feature film with this camera is out of the question. However, I was on a shoot this weekend and we used a Panasonic HVX200 and the sound was unbelievabley sharp and crisp with zero post production tweaking. The DP had never used the camera before so I was totally blown away by this (the dp didn't even know how to use the manual focus). So this made me wonder:

1. Is the audio capability on the HVX200 vastly superior, or does the A1 have the same potential to capture crisp audio?
2. Am I just doing something very wrong setting wise and if so if anyone has acheived "feature film" clarity and crisp audio. What were all of your exact settings on, please list every last detail I'll be for ever in debted to you.
 
audio recording is fairly complicated. I don't think the HVX and XHA1's audio capabilities are all that different.

First of all, are you simply using the onboard mic? Cuz if so, then that's why your audio is so terrible. Get a good shotgun mic such as the NTG-2 or NTG-3, and set the audio levels manually and you should be in pretty good shape. If you're shooting indoors, I like to cover the walls and floors with blankets or foam padding to prevent echo. Then just get the mic in as close as you can (within a foot) and you should have decent audio.
 
What are you using to capture the audio? I recommend hiring a sound person that will help ease your pain/stress.

Nicole
 
What Nicole said. The HVX and A1 audio capabilities are very similar. The difference between good and bad sound would be in the operator and the sound recording equipment. Get the mic in close and keep the gain as low as you can.

For comparison all the audio from this short was shot straight into the camera with no mixer, just an MK012 and a boom.

http://vimeo.com/7507519
 
I have an A1 with a Rode NTG2 and I use some Sennheiser 100 G2 wireless lav's from time to time and as long as I take a few seconds to check levels and stuff it sounds great in post
 
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