Hello,

Does someone know what the audio meter on the Canon XH A1 is measuring? Is it VU, peak or a combination? The manual has nothing to say on this matter.

John

Help me guys! I posted this question on the XH-A1 forum but nothing. My faith is now in the hands of audio guys!

All the cams I've had do the manufacturers idea of VU, the concept being Peak is too hard to set and leave for the shot, for the gun and run brigade.

And cost comes into it, a few cents more for a better meter means big bucks over the life of the production runs. The better the cam (cost wise) the better the audio meter circuit.

A PPM on a cam will dull the average user into recording a basic lower level leading to tape noise when he/she tries to raise the audio level in post. It can be a trap if you've got VU switchable to Peak on a rig. You only forget to check it once.

http://www.shure.com/ProAudio/Products/us_pro_ea_vu

Cheers.

PS Cross posting is not allowed mate. :/

I ask because it appears the XH A1 is measuring peak. When I send it signal from a Sound Devices 302 the camera reading corresponds to peak display on the mixer. This comes as a surprise to me because I'd always, for some reason, assumed that the camera was giving a VU reading. Experimented with my XL1 as well and I get the same results.

Answer to my question. Canon have just got in touch with me and they say that the meter is measuring VU.

Well. I wouldn't want to dispute the manufacturer but that's really odd. VU meters usually have their zero point arounf mid to 2/3 of the way up and are marked -dB below that and +dB above. The illustrations in the camera manual show a normal digital meter where zero is full scale and the graduations are in -dB below full scale.

I'm with Steve. My XL2 meters show peak.

Well, peak for real audio and RMS when I feed tone.

Regards,

Ty Ford