The recently-arrived FX7 that I have beside me as I write this is producing a faint but audible amount of motor noise from the vicinity of the lens/body junction. It's unrelated to the tape drive and unaffected by zooming so I figure it's the focus servo motor (or whatever the correct terminology is).

It just loud enough to be picked up by the mic in quiet surroundings ... and just loud enough that I can hear it with my eye to the viewfinder. Is this a flaw in this particular camera, or simply a characteristic of the FX7?

(My HC1 is noticeably quieter).

I get that in my V1E in very quiet surroundings. It's like a faint "whine" noise as the zoom or focus servos do their stuff. I think it's normal, if a little annoying. I'm not sure if it's direct noise being picked up, or some sort of interference - I never thought to check.

My previous camera, a VX2100, did exactly the same thing.

The only way round it for me is to get the mic off-camera onto a pistol grip or similar.

Thanks Mike. My 'whine' varies a little, as though the motor may be struggling or slightly worn. Or maybe I'm just over-sensitive to it.

Trying to decide if it's something worth getting serviced - anyone else have any thoughts?

Graham,

I took my V1 into a very quit room and held my ear to the lens barrel and tried some zooming. It does sound just like a tiny electrical motor noise, which is about right. It varies in frequency depending on eactly what I'm doing with it.

Funny, I never thought about it before.

So all is well then! :)

Hmmm ... the thing is, mine varies when I'm NOT doing anything with the camera. And I can hear it with my eye to the viewfinder - i.e 18" at least from the lens barrel. So I get the impression its louder than what you are hearing. Bother.

FX-7 is a noisy camera. When I bought mine, I sent it back as defective, but was told that the grinding sound was "normal". Now I know why the mic is positioned differently in the more expensive V1...

Turning the image stabilizer off helps a little. Post editing sound with parametric equalizer helps as well. The noise is often concentrated in narrow bands.

The on-camera mic is pretty good otherwise, and I tend to use it despite of the noise level.