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CAMCORDER SELECTION FOR AUDIO • MICROPHONE INPUT JACK: Obviously. However, only the most expensive camcorders costing many thousands of dollars have XLR inputs. You will probably be looking for a prosumer level camcorder which has a minijack microphone input. Don’t worry. There are XLR Camcorder Adapter/Preamps which convert your XLR mic to the minijack input of the camcorder. Using these products allow you to use quality XLR mics with prosumer level camcorders, so you don’t need to spend many thousands of dollars for a pro-level camcorder to get good audio. • HEADPHONE JACK: You need to have the ability to monitor your audio. You wouldn’t shoot video without looking at the LCD screen, would you? Meters don’t give you any information about signal-to-noise. Your meter could be telling you that your signal level is just fine. But, your audio could sound like crap, because you’ve got lots of echo or background noise. • MANUAL OVERRIDE OF AGC: Camcorders have circuitry/algorithms which turns up the gain for low input signals, and turns down the gain for high input signals. This provides a wide range of input signal levels that your camcorder can accept, and ensure that the internal A/D’s won’t overload. This is sometimes called the “Automatic” mode, or AGC (Automatic Gain Control). This is great for environments with unpredictable and widely varying signal levels (say, a birthday party). However, camcorder amps are noisy. You can get lower overall system performance by putting the camcorder on “Manual”, and using an external low-noise preamp (such as XLR Camcorder Adapter/Preamps). So, get a camcorder that has manual override of AGC (if you already have a camcorder which does not have manual override of AGC, then that’s OK. XLR Camcorder Adapter/Preamps are still a benefit to you). The tutorials will teach you how to implement this technique. • AUDIO LEVEL METERS: These are not an absolute must. But, they are really nice to have. • FULL-SIZED ACCESSORY SHOE: If there are occasions where you will be mounting your shotgun to your camcorder, then this is nice to have. Note, some smaller camcorders have an accessory shoe, but it is not full-sized. So, you won’t be able to fit a microphone shock mount in it. It’s not a must to have, because there are some aftermarket brackets you can purchase to add it later. Remember, when your mic is on your camcorder, it is not in its optimal orientation. You should be frequently getting your shotgun mic off or your camcorder anyhow. • THREADS FOR WIDE-ANGLE LENS: For times when you do have your shotgun mounted on top of your camcorder, you can use a wide angle lens to get the mic closer to your subject. However, the wide-angle lens does add spherical aberrations. Remember, when your mic is on your camcorder, it is not in its optimal orientation. You should be frequently getting your shotgun mic off or your camcorder anyhow. • RECORDING MEDIA: DV tape drives are often make a lot of audible noise. So, when your mic is close to the camcorder, it can pick up that distinctive tape whine. Other recording media are much quieter (flash memory is silent). But, there are other considerations such as video format and compression that need to be considered with recording media as well.
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Buying a new camcorder?
Here is a guide to you what features to look for in a camcorder, so you’ll be able to capture good audio.
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