Is There News about FAN NOISE ??

MIne external sound Tascam DR-40 with mixpre pict op the fan noise from BMCC EF 2,5m distance from the camera to the mic
I have to dubt the dialog's again this is not normal..
I'm running the newest firmware ..

Why can BMD not get some better quality fan everyone will pay more for a better fan solution.

Yes contact BMD and have to send audio file with the fan noise..................

Perhaps you have a faulty fan unit, but the fan on mine is very quiet.

Much quieter than many other cameras with active cooling.

My macbook pro fan is louder, and when I use it on set, its that which is the problem, not the bmcc fan.

Have you access to another bmcc to compare it to?

There is nobody here with a BMC camera where I live to compare...I have to travel 200 km

Either you need to reduce the sensitivity of your mics and move them closer to the subjects or you have a problem with your camera.

In either instance, its not something inherent with the camera design or construction - so unless you send it back to BMD, I cannot see how anyone on here can help you.

Is there something specific that I can do to help you self-diagnose on your camera?

With my BMCC the fan is really quiet. The running tape deck of my Canon XH-A1 produces more noise.
I just measured a few seconds ago the noise level to give you an idea:
all with C filter weighting and slow response on the SPL meter

quiet room in my studio (10 p.m.) - 29 dB

Same room with BMCC turned on:
in 1m distance to the camera: 33 dB
in 2m distance: 31 dB
in 25 cm distance: 37 dB

If you got no SPL meter but an iPhone - there is an App called SPL meter from Andrew Smith which is very well adjusted to the iPhones mic and does a good job in measuring the sound level. I did measure with this App too and got similar results.
So you might be able to compare my measured values with your camera.

Thank you Robert

I did your test I don't know if I'm doing well
the results :

room = 33 dB
1m = 35 dB
2m = 33.5 dB
025cm = 39 dB

thanks also Tom !

So your camera seems to be indeed a bit louder than mine, not by a lot but it is there.
If you got your camera in a cage - you might try to remove it to do measurement again, just to rule it out as a cause.
The fan noise is stronger at the bottom of the camera, so you might try to get thick black Molton cloth and drape some to shield the noise to the front (just take care not to cover the ventilation!).
If you can, use a directional mic pointing away from the camera, if using a lav place it nearer to the speakers voice. People often tend to place a lav below the breast, I find that is too far away from the audio source.

Finally have a look at noise reduction in software like Audition or if you want the best quality than try iZotope RX 3. The lower priced standard version should do the job easily and pays off in no time.

If you can't do the post on your own because you were hired to do just the filming, you might consider using a longer lens for interviews and place the camera as far away as possible. That might give you very usable audio with little of the fan noise in it.

Thanks Robert

I always record sound external and heard that the mic shotgun rode NTG2 tascam DR40 with sound divice mix pre pickt up the fan noise about 2 m between the dialogs
So mine conclusion is I have to careful with this camera according the fan noise that's a sad conclusion.
I hope BMD notice this problem

I will take the pocket camera for critical situations quiet rooms example to work with.

I often just use the Dynamics filter in Premiere Pro and deactivate the Compressor but activate the Expander where I set the Threshold to just above the noise level and a 1.5 Ratio.
That does the trick in many situations by just lowering the levels automatically during non-dialog parts in a transparent way.
You even don't have to do that for every clip - just go into the Audiomixer window and click on the triangle in the upper left. That unfolds the filter stage where you can activate the Dynamics filter per audio track. Many do not know this little shortcut trick.

I was curious if my fan was too noisy as well and asked BM suppprt for a replacement. They asked for a video and replied that the level is as expected. Here's the video:



I hope one can use the click of the ON-button as some kind of reference at what level the fan-noise actually is.

I was curious if my fan was too noisy as well and asked BM suppprt for a replacement. They asked for a video and replied that the level is as expected. Here's the video:



I hope one can use the click of the ON-button as some kind of reference at what level the fan-noise actually is.

Considering the buttons are almost silent on my unit, your fan sounds perfectly normal to me.

Sounds pretty normal to me too.

Robert and Tom: thank you! I was a bit worried as some people on forums said they barely hear their BMC's fan. Maybe their hearing-ability corresponds to my increasing farsightedness.

Just today I shot a short interview with the subject standing 1 m away from the camera, with a Rode NTG3 shotgun mic into the Tascam DR60D. Sound had pretty good quality, fan noise was not audible in the recording.

Robert and Tom: thank you! I was a bit worried as some people on forums said they barely hear their BMC's fan. Maybe their hearing-ability corresponds to my increasing farsightedness.

I hate to ever say anything which comes across as making accusations as to the skill set of anyone on here - but as I am sure many people in the industry know - it is rare to be able to film in a very silent location. There is always the slight background noise of Air Conditioning/ ventilation, on set laptops/computers, even traffic sometimes - and so when recording your sound you need to record it in such a way that your noise floor is as low as possible and your mics are positioned to best record the source as loud as possible.

As long as you do so properly, and your fan is not faulty - I fail to see how the bmcc fan is a problem. For the very odd occasion that mine has been faintly audible - it is very easy to remove via spectral noise reduction.

There is a huge range of skills and abilities on here, as well as experiences and also expectations of the camera. In the shoots I have done so far, including an auditorium (which should be very quiet) filled with omni mics (not great for cutting out unwanted sound) the bmcc was not the loudest thing in the room and not audible on the recordings.

If I turn my bmcc on in a very quiet room, yes I can hear the fan. But then again I can also hear the tick of my watch, traffic a few miles away and sometimes bird song, and yet in this same room I have recorded VO work and music for years.

If someone is finding the fan too loud, and they suspect it is not faulty - I highly recommend investing in better sound equipment or a sound recordist - as you are likely to have bigger problems on shoots you find the fan too loud.


Hope no one takes this as a personal comment, more of a reassurance to those interested in getting a bmcc in the future and are concerned about this.

You're right Tom. Even with a Sony PCM D50 attached to the BMC and recording in a queit room, well, with my goddaughter yelling and dancing, you couldn't hear the fan. At least not if you watched the footage without a scientific approach

Tom you are absolutely right with what you are saying here.
But it is a good habit on location to have computer, fridges, air conditioning temporarily shut off during the recording. When shooting in companies most of the time noise comes from other employees walking by, chatting in the corridor, open/close connecting doors. That's the hardest part to control.

In 2004 when we did principal shooting for a feature film we have been in woods, mountains and so on - but it was not easy to escape civilization. You always had the sounds of planes passing by, chainsaws, people having a party, cars. The more quiet nature was, the more a single civilization sound annoyed you.

Then we shot in a 400 years old farmer's house in the mountains - it was so quiet - we had to remove all watches because you could hear it in the sound recording. There the BMCC's fan would have been definitely a problem

Tom you are absolutely right with what you are saying here.
But it is a good habit on location to have computer, fridges, air conditioning temporarily shut off during the recording. When shooting in companies most of the time noise comes from other employees walking by, chatting in the corridor, open/close connecting doors. That's the hardest part to control.

of course

But its not always possible to do so. Had a friend get billed for several thousand GBP £ for spoiled food after one of his assistants unplugged an industrial freezer!

In large office or academic buildings, there is always a rogue drill sound somewhere in the distance haha.

There is a German songwriter, Reinhard Mey, who once wrote a song called:
"Irgendein Depp bohrt irgendwo immer"
"Some Dweeb is drilling always somewhere" (hope my translation makes sense)

There is a German songwriter, Reinhard Mey, who once wrote a song called:
"Irgendein Depp bohrt irgendwo immer"
"Some Dweeb is drilling always somewhere" (hope my translation makes sense)

haha! the translation makes perfect sense, what a song title!

So send mine BMC to the distribution to check
They called me that compare to other camera's mine camera has no difference according fan noise....

Is the fan noise a problem yes when you are in room with normal quiet ambients then you have to be careful because you will catch the fan noise with external sound mix.
And investing in better audio set is not the solution because a better audio set will catch better fan noise.

I got the sounddevices mix pre and tascam dr-40 not the cheapest combo ..

The camera is a beast but this has to be notice ..!!!!!!
I have to dub be almost all mine dialogs

So send mine BMC to the distribution to check
They called me that compare to other camera's mine camera has no difference according fan noise....

Is the fan noise a problem yes when you are in room with normal quiet ambients then you have to be careful because you will catch the fan noise with external sound mix.
And investing in better audio set is not the solution because a better audio set will catch better fan noise.

I got the sounddevices mix pre and tascam dr-40 not the cheapest combo ..

The camera is a beast but this has to be notice ..!!!!!!
I have to dub be almost all mine dialogs

If your audio recording equipment is good but fan noise is still a problem, then it sounds like you need to work on your sound recording and processing skills.

Fans on other high end cameras can be louder and its not uncommon to have other louder noises on set from which the dialogue needs to be isolated.

I recently shot a scene in a room with loud ac and the camera fan, using one omni mic between two subjects, about 1m from either of them, recording to a cheap zoom h1, no problems with fan noise.

Yes Tom, thanks for your advice

There are solutions you can reduce the problem
But also I try to be realistic that the fan is to noisy it will be fine when BMD can fix the problem to replace a quieter fan.
That's mine point.

Also I'm super happy with this camera the results are astonishment got the pocket cam too.

I suspect there maybe something else at issue here because the fan noise from the vid didn't seem to bad.

Perhaps you had the mic gain on too high? Perhaps you had some sort of audio compressor going in the mixer that elevated the background noises?


Jules