BeachTek DXA-5D XLR Adapter - Picture!
 

Cheers,

Edmond

My wish list for a beachtek:

1) make the whole thing a giant grip. Not necessarily the shutter/AE controls (not shooting videos in portrait anyway)

2) built in SD or CF audio recording (nothing fancy, just build in the functionality of a 3 year old iRiver for redundant recording)

3) maybe provide Power to the camera since its blocking the battery slot.

love the LCD though

I'm happy just to see the phones pot!

beachtek dxa-5d xlr adaptor - picture
 

Great piece of kit but is it any good with the 5dmk2 as the camera auto controls the sound levels or does this device inactivate the cameras auto level controls. Is it not just better to use a Zoom h4 and a clapper board?

According to info from Beachtek, the DXA-5D does not inactivate the auto levels on the camera.

On the positive side, audio is really not too bad considering the small mic. The addition of this device + a decent Rode / SH mic should provide reliable camera sound and the H4 / R09 can provide the backup / ambient?

Nick

personally I wouldn't trust the 5D to record audio. I would take just about any thing else (heck, minidisc recorders are dirt cheap now-a-days) for the main recording.

Nothing you stick in front of the 5D2 can "deactivate" anything on the 5D2. The 5D2 will still try to ride the gain, and you still won't be really monitoring what's actually being recorded. Not saying there won't be some value in using something like this, but personally, once you start adding a real mic and a decent preamp, I don't see that much benefit to running into the crappy audio section of the 5D2 -- just live with the 5D2 audio or go double system, anything in between seems pointless, but what do I know?

Agreed. I don't really get this Beachtek device. If it were going to a camera where you could control the input, then I get that the Beachtek would be fantastic. But since teh 5DMii will ALWAYS (unless they change the firmware) auto-gain, what's the point.
You'll have great audio at the Beachtek side, but the camera will still ride the gain on the acquisition side. Pretty useless when it comes to really quiet times and/or really loud bursts.
If or when Canon gives us manual control, I just don't understand the benefit of the the Beachtek, other than to give really good audio to a really questionable recording device (audio-wise, that is).
Am I missing something?

Ed,

I'm going to contact Beacktek about this one, If you are talking to Beachtek about this then you should really make them understand that they can't defeat the auto volume control on the 5dmkII. That said and given how far they are down the road with this prototype maybe we could make just one small change that would increase the unit's usefulness. I note like other Beachteks that it has a captive cable outputting to camera. If they could replace that with two minijack sockets which split the output signal then we could record the same signal similtaneously to a field recorder and the camera. So if the camera audio is good enough then you can just use it, but you have another copy on the recorder if not. Not ideal , but workable for run and gun.

Dan

Or better yet, build it into the unit. Then we're talking

Great suggestion. Use the camera audio for "quick." Use the field recorder for "quality." And when using a recorder, don't lose the audio to the camera (especially if wireless from a distance), so it's easy to sync in post.

Just got this response from Beachtek, looks very promising.

I'm thinking something like the new Zoom H4n (Samson delivering Zoom H4n handheld recording device at CES - Engadget) would be a better choice than the beachtek. Decent built in mics, XLRs with phantom power, 4 track recording, etc - run the output into the camera's mic input and sync shouldn't be to difficult.

I think the Zoom recorders make a lot of sense with the 5dmkII, the only reason I like the idea of a beachtek is for the run and gun scenarios where having the controls easily accessible on the base of the camera makes more sense. I'd plan to have a recorder like the Zoom or an Edirol cabled into a pouch or my pocket to keep a low profile.

Dan

about the zoom recorder more questions
 

From the links of Evan.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Captain Obvious @ Jan 8th 2009 2:33PM
From what I've read of the previous Zoom recorders, their time-chip is sooo cheap that if you're recording for video, you're screwed:
( the wandering clock-frequency means if you get the beginning & the end to match the video, the middle *won't* )

Unless that's been fixed this time 'round, then the Roland/Edirol 4-track unit or the Zaxcom unit are still the ones to beat ( both have timecode, and both apparently got decent crystals/PLL chips )
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
thank you Evan for your link on the Zoom Recorder, but I found
something on the same site. I am not shure of what its about.
Can someone explain me more.
thank you.