IS & Sound Record
 

Hi all.

Bought Recently my 7D with a 28-135 IS USM and a 70-300 IS USM and a 50mm 1.4

I'm now searching for a solution for sound recording and i'm a total newbie in this field.

I will do mostly video of car (Drag Racing, Car Show, InCar video).

I found that the IS is very noisy. So noisy that you can hear it while recording with the original mic of the 7D. I know that i have to buy something to get better sound of the engine.

So what will be the best solution for me.

A rode Directional video mic ?
A Sennheiser MKE400 ?
A Rode Stereo VideoMic ?
A Zoom H4N or equivalent with its stock mic ?

So what will be the best solution for car sound, and if possible to avoid capturing the sound of the IS.

Thx.

Hi and welcome to DVinfo!

My suggestion is (in this order for best performance).

1. Zoom H4n - as it's off camera and avoids the 7Ds Auto Gain Control (AGC) as well as the IS sound issue you know about. Syncing it all up with the footage in post is pretty simple... most of the time. Lots of info on that in the audio section on here (take a look and search in there about the Zooms when you get time) but if it's mostly engine noise and not much dialogue it should be a piece of cake!
2. Rode VideoMic - if you really must have an on-camera mic (sometimes for run and gun stuff it's the only way). Will pic up more from the front/exclude the sound from either side of you better than the one below. It "sticks out" a little, at the back, when on the 7D. May well still pic up some IS noise (but is better than just the 7Ds built in mic).
3. Rode Stereo Videomic (SVM) - will pick up more sound to the sides, people talking in the crowd line or similar. Great ambience mic and made of metal/very rugged so much heavier than the all plastic Videomic. Does not stick out at the back when on the 7D. However, with your lenses on the 7D may well still pick up IS noise (I suspect, more so than Videomic, perhaps?...but it'll still be much much better than the 7Ds on-board mic). I've used the SVM + 7D set-up very recently and actually got pretty decent results for casual stuff (my kids school nativity plays/singing etc.).
4. The Senny MKE400 - I don't know this mic so put it last - I've read the Rodes are better - but others will have to advise you on that.

Amongst my ever growing kit of cameras and sound gear I have the 7D, Zoom (H2 in my case) and both the Rode mics mentioned.

I sometimes video historic aircraft at shows like Duxford (although I've yet to do that with my 7D). The engine noise is everything!...so not too dissimilar to your intended use!

Hope this helps and good luck!

If you prefer to record in-camera, a juicedLink preamp is a good solution. The problem is that Magic Lantern isn't yet ported to the 7D, so we're stuck with auto-gain. The Beachtek can defeat the auto-gain, but it's noisy. However, juicedLink is developing a new solution...

juicedLink: New Product Preview: DN101 DSLR Audio Solution

Thanks for your input. Great info there.
For the H4N i was thinking to mount it on top of the camera, so i will still have the noisy stabilisation motor. I think i will put the stabilizer off when taking video, most of the time i will be using a flowpod, so the stabilisation will not be used anyway.

Canon 7D and Zoom H4n Article/Video Review
 

Hi again!

You might want to check out this engadget article (and the 2 videos in it) - it's pretty "basic stuff" and not close to the level of expertise some of the gurus on here (like Jon and many others) freely share but demonstrates the 7D with the Zoom H4n really well. Enjoy!

Canon EOS 7D impressions for filmmaker wannabes -- Engadget

I got the video grip from http://web.me.com/markwatkins/norths...HOTOtools.html
It's a bracket that goes under the camera, then a vertical handle and a cold shoe on top of the handle. You can get a whole cage but this sufficed for me. I mount the Zoom H4N on the cold shot instead of on the camera hot shoe. It seems more convenient that way to me. For your purposes, that might move it far enough away from the lens so it doesn't pick up so much noise.