anyone noticing DropOut on the HDR-FX1? with regular miniV tapes?

[Augusto Manuel]

I thought this thread awas about videotape not about buying a camera !!!

Originally Posted by Bryan McCullough

The FX1's built-in mic is crap. Just like the built-in mic of every other camrea out there.

You must, must, must, must put money into a good external mic if you want any kind of audio at all. It would be best to just picture each camera as not even having a mic and that you'll need to get an audio solution as well as video.

Now, only you know your cash flow. If you can buy the camera now and buy a mic later, that may be an option. If you'll never again spend money on this stuff then get the mic now.

[Bryan McCullough]

Originally Posted by Augusto Manuel

I thought this thread awas about videotape not about buying a camera !!!

Hey, talk to the guy that asked the question. :D

[Jerry Waters]

I have a Z1, my friend an FX1. He has shot nothing but Sony Excellence tapes for 3 months without a dropout. I tried buying Digital Master tapes before my camera arrived. They are listed several places on the internet for $17 but everyone is out of stock. I bought the other HDV tape at $13. Neither of us have had any dropouts and I recorded over one tape a couple of times.

As for audio, I bought an Audio Technica 897 for $249 after reading a thread about it. DSE recommends it highly and I find it gives EXCELLENT sound quality. Someone turned my sound down and I forgot about it until I captured a few clips and found they were recorded too low. I took them into Sound Forge and ran them through Wave Hammer and Normalize and there was NO extra noise on the resulting audio. It was as though it had been recorded perfectly from the beginning.