Well the lack of a front control isn't as bad as I feared. I have done some interviews using a Sennhieser wireless system, and set the audio control to auto. It seems to be very good. I haven't noticed any pumping, in fact the room doesn't seem to come up at all between clips.

Just one less thing to worry about, I guess, thought it is fundamentally wrong, in my opinion, for Sony not to have set things up better. Considering their rich history with Betacam, it seems inexcusable.

Hi Peter, remarkably good isn't it? The auto audio on the F350. I use it all the time when I'm not with a sound guy on the road. No pumping or noticeable limiter at all.

Yes the auto mode is great. I'm starting to think that it's purely a limiter(perhaps a compressor/limiter?). On some clips when a person is rather soft spoken, they come in at lower levels, suggesting that there is no auto gain being employed. The rest however are right at the limit, but with no sense of being squashed.

The reporters questions(off axis) also stay way down(I am using a hyper-cardiod mic). During the newsers, I just unplug my wireless, and hook up my cable from the media box, leave everything as it was. Seems to work perfectly.

I'm happy!

Thank you Peter and Vincent for that feedback. I haven't had a need to run auto just yet so this is very good news.

-gb-

Greg, for channel 1, I have found extensive control over the level that AGC works at in the menu(page 110 of the manual). You can select an audio limiter mode, to work with manual mode as well. However, after very close listening(quality headphones) to recorded news clips last night, I could detect no signs of pumping in Auto mode, and it certainly doesn't clip.

I haven't tried it with wired lav mic's yet, but I don't expect any problems.

Peter

Yeah, thanks Peter. I have been through the menus, but settings don't always translate into results. That's why your positive experiences are so beneficial to others.

-gb-

I had a job today at a shipyard. Lots of noise and hectic. I had a wireless lav on 1 and a reporter omni mic on 2. Without the auto audio function I was nowhere! On the flight back home I'd listened to the clips, I really can not hear that's automatic. I wonder how Sony does that...

That's great Vincent, a shipyard would certainly be challenging. This auto capability is going to be very helpful down the line. In particular, two person interviews. In the past I had to put the reporter on CH-2 in auto, and hope for the best. It's going to make it tough for the sound guys.

I had figured on making a 5 pin jack for the front, with one wire for the wireless and the other for a shotgun. I still might, but I have to wonder why.

On a side note, I have been mounting my wireless receiver(horizontally) on the side on my BVV5 BetaSP deck, just under the loading door using velcro. It works very well. It saves having to remove from the back of the battery everytime I need to charge or change.

Is there any reason why that would be a problem on the XDCam?

Pinouts
 

Hi there, I too am looking for the pinouts on the 5pin xlr to 2x3pin xlrs, if someone has them that would be great.

1: ground
2: ->pin2-Ch1
3: ->pin3-Ch1
4: ->pin2-Ch2
5: ->pin3-Ch2

;)

Robert has it correct. But just to be sure there are no phase problems...

Pin 1 - analog ground
Pin 2 - Channel 1 (x) Audio Out
Pin 3 - Channel 1 (y) Audio Out
Pin 4 - Channel 2 (x) Audio Out
Pin 5 - Channel 2 (y) Audio Out

Btw, The 5 pin XLR at the front for the stereo mic follow the same configuration.

Peter

Many thanks guys.

4-channel recording on DigiBeta cameras?
 

Hi there,

I'm intrigued by this discussion of recording 4 tracks of audio on a F350. Just wondering: is there any way to record 4 tracks on a DigiBeta 790 or DigiBeta 970 camera? I've had a look at the specs and neither cameras seem to have a 5-pin audio input so I guess it's not possible.

Many thanks,
Jack