Digital Camcorder advice

[ByronBlack]

I'll add a couple of brontobyte RAID drives while i'm at it

I wonder just how many short years it will be when brontobyte drives are going to be required...

Out of interest, which model of camera's do you use? Just so I can contrast and compare...

Steve.M - in your dvd's, did you use an off-camera mic?

 

[Steve Maskery]

Don't talk to me about mics.

Thye sound quality is the biggest difficulty for film-makers. They don't have a man with a big furry squirrel on a pole for the fun of it. I got through, IIRC, 11 microphones on Workshop Essentials 1 and 2. I tried two different radio mics, the second one being fairly expensive, but it simply didn't work well in the workshop. Where I stood I was next to a big chunk of cast iron, and if I wasn't then the receiver was. It played havoc with the signal. In the end I used a £20 mic from Maplins and that gave good results. It does mean that the sound quality is a bit variable, especially in the earlier scenes (bear in mind we shot from October to June).

The downside of using such a mic is that you are tethered to the camera and it is very easy to forget that...... The other problem is that presenting something like woodwork or any other practical subject where you are moving your head is that it is easy to pop, which really does sound awful. A fluffy cover helps

For WE3 I used the mic that is built in to the camera. Very good clarity, but the volume changes depending on my distance from the camera, so I have to normalize the gain for every scene when I edit. I also get a constant slight hum. This is the noise of the camera motor being picked up and it is not easy to remove without affecting the voice.

I'd have thought that the camera mic would be fine for a Podcast.

Cheers
Steve

 

[brianhabby]

Have a look at this site http://www.whatsabyte.com/

some useful info on storage capacities

regards

Brian

 

[kityuser]

Have a look at this site http://www.whatsabyte.com/

some useful info on storage capacities

regards

Brian

they missed out a nibble which is 4 bits of a byte.

Steve

 

[DaveL]

they missed out a nibble which is 4 bits of a byte.

Shouldn't that be nybble :twisted:

 

[kityuser]

they missed out a nibble which is 4 bits of a byte.

Shouldn't that be nybble :twisted:

why of course *spelling*

:?

Steve

 

[ByronBlack]

Steve.M

Thanks for the info on the mics - when you talk about the mics that you have used, were they the lapel type mics or the regular hand-held type?

I'll mostly be filming the mrs doing some veggie stuff in the garden and she'll be moving about a fair bit, and because I want to keep post-production to a minimum is there a good mic choice for someone like her who'll be moving to and from the camera as she presents? (I'm thinking something like a wireless lapell mic if such a thing exists -- or maybe the cat-on-a-stick type boom thingy..?)

Cheers!

 

[Steve Maskery]

For outdoors a wireless one would be ideal, becasue there is nothing to ake the signal bounce around. However, the receiver unit will need a power supply, so if you, too are moving about, then you need a mic system where the receiver can be battery-powered, as well as the mic.

My wireless one was an Audio Technica Presenter. The sound quality in a normal environment was excellent, but it got all messed up in the workshop. You can plug a range of mics into the transmitter, mine was a Lavaier-type, but you could use a head-mounted one or even a guitar pickup. There are different setting for different types of input.

The kit (mic, transmitter, receiver) cost £200. 18 months later I eBayed it and got the princely sum of £32 before fees

S

 

[ByronBlack]

Steve, thanks for the advice on mics, it's much appreciated. I've now formulated a list of essential in what I need to consider - better getting saving my pennies! I won't be doing this until later in the summer so plenty of time to find the right kit.