Chris Hocking wrote:
Sorry, but I'm gonna call you out on this. If we're talking high end cameras, if I send a feed to an Alexa, the final results are basically perfect, meaning that what I hear in my mixer is exactly the same as what ends up on camera. The Alexa is the gold standard in terms of camera audio quality as far as I'm concerned. Even with the RED ONE/EPIC/Scarlet, the audio is pretty good - not perfect, but it's pretty darn close. If we're talking prosumer cameras, any of the Panasonic or Sony cameras with XLR inputs will seriously out-perform the BMCC in terms of audio performance. You can get USEABLE results with this camera - but not nearly "as good" as even the cheapest prosumer cameras on the market.
Chris, what exactly are we talking about?
Bad signal specs, bad inputs, bad frequency response, bad s/n ratio?
The signal is 48 kHz at 24 bit, right? Doesn't sound too shabby in my book.
"Cheapest Prosumer Cameras" like the Sony FS700 feature only 16-bit 48KHz.
Balanced inputs on the big BMC cameras. Not bad ether. Unusual plugs, but same signal quality.
Frequency response: So we have this low end problem, I'm also not happy with it, but an easy fix as demonstrated by Robert.
Signal to noise ratio depends more on your preamps than on the recording part of the camera.
The DR100 has not exactly a stellar s/n ratio, the H6 is a step up from the 4 which had a bad s/n ratio too.
I managed to get audio, that was good enough for primetime TV with just a NTG3/Oktava, a JuicedLink preamp and some tweaking in post out of my BMC.
So if it is good enough for the our super picky QC at the national TV, and the Minister President, it's good enough for me - your personal mileage may vary though.
If you compare a $2000 Dollar camera to a $2500 device like the 722, that does just one thing - audio recording as good as possible, - that's a bit apples and oranges, but you know that.