I just purchased my first wired lav mic AT899 and when I did some test shots I had a lot of noise. i had non professional talent that didn't talk loud but the audio level didn't move. My settings were -20db audio level and -50db mic level. I also had my shotgun mic on.
I am really trying to improve my audio but find it difficult to see on the audio meter. if I crank up the volume, i et a lot of noise. I use senn hd280 headphones.

Was your input for the lav set to mic level or line level? If it is line level then you will get a very weak signal from the mic. Also, I don't think you would ever need to use +48V with a lav.

Did you try -60dB pad? Could the battery in the lav be dead?

It was set to mic+48 no battery installed in lav. You thinkng switchng to 12db would be better? I hate the indicator level in monitor and wish I coluld hook it up to something better to view.
I will be running a another test tommorrow. My talent has a very soft voice which increasing the volume just adds noise.
I also just recieved Jay Rose book producing great sound for video and looking to get the best sound from this camera.
Thanks for the quick reply

It was set to mic+48 no battery installed in lav. You thinkng switchng to 12db would be better? ...

You need to install the battery in the lav power supply and turn off phantom power.

In a better scenario, you would go through a mixer w/ good limiters and send line level at -12 to the camera.

You need to install the battery in the lav power supply and turn off phantom power.

In a better scenario, you would go through a mixer w/ good limiters and send line level at -12 to the camera.

**some** ( ok very few) lavs will take power via phantom. it depends on their power module. usually this requires a ambient emuel, or equavilant 3rd party module. factory ones tend to be internal battery only. I've got one that goes XLR->TA5 so I can use my lectro wired lavs on hardwire. super handy, but not cheap at $120 for 1. note that if you have phantom power on, and its not used by the mic, it will make the input noiser. I have a sony shotgun that will run from internal battery or phantom power, it doesn't care.

and as the other poster said, the best way is a external mixer, or premap and feed line level into the camera. Sound Devices makes a single and stereo preamp you could camera mount... but not cheap...and as always, you get what you pay for.

You thinkng switchng to 12db would be better?

The reference level setting (-20dB or -12dB) only does two things: it's moves the little dot on the audio meters to indicate either -20 or -12, and it sets the level of the internal tone generator to either -20 or -12. It has absolutely no effect on the sound other than providing you a meter and tone reference for your headroom preference.

We'll I layed back the video in the camera and the sound was great. Also no noise in headphones. I think when I captured the video using a consumer camera that it did not capture the sound correctly.
How come there is more noise in headphones while shooting but not in playback? I use senn hd250 headphones.