Crappy Audio on the Panasonic AG-DVC30 Camcorder
About a year ago I applied some of my textbook royalty money toward an expensive mini-DV camcorder, the Panasonic AG-DVC30. The image is great, but the sound level has been very low and it's been this way since the first day I used it.
Recently, I made a more "scientific" study of the sound levels. I set up a standard color bars & tone in Premiere, positioned the camera about 10 feet from the speakers and then tried various mic settings. I imported them into Premiere and looked at them with an audio meter. 'Course, this does not relate to any objective scale, but the relative levels are perhaps significant. And I did set the loudness of the tone so that it was roughly equivalent to humans talking.
When I use the built-in mic and the default settings, I get a reading of
-30 dB
Which seems very low to my ear. When I attach an external (shotgun) mic and connect the cable to the "mic" input, I get the same thing:
-30dB
However, when I attach the external mic to the "AV in/out" setting (which, I know, is not supposed to be used for mic recordings, but I've been forced to use it in order to get audible levels), the level jumps up to:
-6dB
But if I shoot the same thing using a modest, consumer-grade Canon camcorder in exactly the same location, I get:
-12 dB
Which sounds "normal" to my ear.
When I first got the camera, I tried all sorts of shenangans to raise the audio level and posted pleas for help on various support boards. Nothing ever came of it. Now the warranty is running out (has already run out?) and the issue is bugging me again.
Recently, I made a more "scientific" study of the sound levels. I set up a standard color bars & tone in Premiere, positioned the camera about 10 feet from the speakers and then tried various mic settings. I imported them into Premiere and looked at them with an audio meter. 'Course, this does not relate to any objective scale, but the relative levels are perhaps significant. And I did set the loudness of the tone so that it was roughly equivalent to humans talking.
When I use the built-in mic and the default settings, I get a reading of
-30 dB
Which seems very low to my ear. When I attach an external (shotgun) mic and connect the cable to the "mic" input, I get the same thing:
-30dB
However, when I attach the external mic to the "AV in/out" setting (which, I know, is not supposed to be used for mic recordings, but I've been forced to use it in order to get audible levels), the level jumps up to:
-6dB
But if I shoot the same thing using a modest, consumer-grade Canon camcorder in exactly the same location, I get:
-12 dB
Which sounds "normal" to my ear.
When I first got the camera, I tried all sorts of shenangans to raise the audio level and posted pleas for help on various support boards. Nothing ever came of it. Now the warranty is running out (has already run out?) and the issue is bugging me again.
posted by Jeremy Butler at 9:47 AM
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