Does external MIC eliminate motor noise?
 

Against my better judgement, I ordered the Sanyo HD1. One-day shipping from Amazon.com. Received it this afternoon from the UPS man.

Had lots of fun testing it out today. As has been observed by others on this board, the noise from the camera's motor is readily noticeable upon playback.

So I'll be getting an external mic. Can someone share there experience? Does an external mic eliminate all the motor noise from the camera or just some of it?

Thanks for any info! I hope to be sharing some footage from the beautiful San Francisco area soon.

Yes Carlos, an external mic detached from the camera will eliminate the motor noise. An external mic attached to the camera needs to be in a rubber isolation mount of some type to eliminate the mechanical coupling of motor noise and camera handling.

-gb-

In my experience, the only recorded noise from the camera is from the auto focus. I find that an external mike, velcroed to the top, eliminates the problem. If you can live without auto focus (and there is lots of depth of focus at the wider end of the lens) that is a simpler solution.

It's funny that for all the cables and doo-dads that came with the HD1, Sanyo didn't think it appropiate to include an external microphone. It's sorely needed.

I think Sanyo's inclusion of an external microphone port is a telling sign.

From a previous thread:
http://cgi.ebay.com/Nickel-Angled-Mi...QQcmdZViewItem

I wonder how the above microphone (I'm looking at the stereo version) compares to the Sound Pro. model.

More money going down the sinkhole...

Carlos,

It looks like it should be good, I got the soundpro and have been happy with that one. I emailed the guy with the ebay one asking about getting one with a smaller mini-jack (cellphone size) so it would plug straight into the HD1, but never heard back.

Using the SoundPro I have not experienced anymore sound from the focusing system.

Actually, I don't particularly think that the inclusion of the mic jack on the HD1 is a "telling sing" - as this is a highly dseired feature by every camcorder user, my thought would be that Sanyo tried to add more features to their camera rather than compensate for the focusing motors noise. (smile) this is noise which can be found on many cameras, and many even add a weak sound from the tapedrive.

Bo

www.bophoto.com/HDV