Z5 audio
 

what does everyone think of the Z5 audio quality i.e. would I get better results by feeding my mics direct to a digital recorder like the zoom h4n or carry on recording the audio direct to camera which records to CD quality?

I use the similar Z7U camcorder and use an Edirol wave recorder when shooting projects such as documentaries which require higher quality audio than simply using audio recorded by the camera. The audio recorded by HDV camcorders is fine enough for many projects. But for anything that will go to air -- or for anything which might be shown in a large room / theatre you might want to go the distance and record to a device that can record audio with more "punch". In a lot of cases I've used both camera recorded audio with that which was recorded by an outboard recorder. So far, so good.

Ian

cheers Ian....so you believe that camera audio is definitley not as good as off camera audio....do you go via a mixer or happy with the pre amps on your recorder?

Hi I have had the Z7 and now have the S270 which has the same audio as the Z5.

They are absolutely fine for most projects and to be honnest the auto level controls are very good and I use them all the time.

OK off camera audio will be better but you are really splitting hairs and the extra work involved syncing etc just is not worth the hastle.

I have been shooting to broadcast standards for the past year as that is where I come from and have not had any problems with the quality of any of my audio direct to the Z7 or S270.

I have the camera mic and two radio mics and for 99% of the work they have gone direct into the camera with auto level set and all the audio has been very clean.

Have a listen to some of the clips here:iNorthEast.tv the Craster, High Force and Northern Steam items were all done direct to camera on auto with editing in final cut pro and dubbing in pro tools via omf.

Did you use a Sennheiser Wireless Microphone System EW 112-P G2 on that High Force segment?
The sound seems very good too me, especially considering the wind!

EDIT:

OFFTOPIC: Just wondering are you the Nattrass from the FCP plugins?

YES two G2's in a force 6 gale, I myself was most impressed at how good they are.

NO that is Greame Nattress although when I e-mailed him he is from the north east of england and we will be distant relations, the different spelling would have occured when a wrong entry was put in the registers.

P.S I am in Amsterdam next month so look forward to a relaxing break in your wonderful country, just taking the canon HF11 though!

I've just redone the commentary for the following movie - on the directional mic supplied with Z5's. It was done in one take, recorded with a CF card in an onboard MRC1K. The sound was put into soundforge, normalised to -16db and was put onto the timeline.
Regions of Change on Vimeo.

There's another movie with sound recorded directly into the cam with a Wireless Sennheiser G2, but we only had one, so my voice is a tad echoey at times, thanks to me using input 2 for a Sennheiser ME66 - but good sound needs the mic closer than I was able to get, and the room wasn't perfect for sound. It's here. Comments welcome. Your Note Said It All on Vimeo