Audio VU meters greyed out
 

Despite checking every setting I could think of, and then checking them again, the VU meters on my XF300 remained greyed out and I had no audio input. Now I had tried a newly aquired NTG2 in channel 1, and tried it with battery and with phantom power, and when reading the manual looking for answers, saw that I should have attached the mic before switching Ch1 to mic+48v. I am fairly sure that I set that switch before attaching the mic.

In the end I could not think where the problem was, so hit the 'reset all settings' in the menu, and everything came back to normal. I tried the NTG2 again, and that was fine, although I have only tried it with a battery and the camera set to mic only.

The switches were obviously in the correct position or the reset would not have bought it all back to life, but I'd welcome opinions as to what was going on? I have only had the camera a month or two, and up till now only used the internal mics and a Rode Videomic, and always at the default settings. I don't even have a list of preferred settings for the rest of the camera, or stored on an SD card, so I now have to go through the rigmarol of working it all out again. So I don't really want to resort to the reset all again.

I promise to save to an SD card this time :-)

Re: Audio VU meters greyed out
 

Is it possible that you had one of the special recording modes, such as Slow & Fast Motion, activated? That would cause the VU meters to be grayed out.

MASTERING THE CANON XF305 & XF300 CAMCORDERS

Re: Audio VU meters greyed out
 

Hi Doug. I actually revisited your Vortex Media 'Mastering the XF305/300' DVDs searching for an answer, and while I frequently use the special record modes, it is difficult to have one of them activated accidentally because of the flashing indication in the display. So I am still at a loss as to what was going on.

I am still wondering if I put things out of sync by using the external mic controls in the wrong way according to the manual (setting to mic + phantom without the mic connected).

Thanks again for putting your various teaching DVDs out there. The XF305/300 tutorials are incredibly well put together, and saved me heaps of time.

Re: Audio VU meters greyed out
 

Hi Trevor,

Sorry I couldn't figure it out the audio problem without seeing it first-hand, but I'm glad you liked the DVD anyway! Thanks for the comments.

Doug