Hello,

I have been using an XH-A1 for about a year - mostly I use it for shooting white water kayaking. Generally I have taken to carrying the camera between my legs in a padded drybag (there isn't the space for a hard case and often the rear of boat is filled with overnight gear hence the camera being shoved in the front). As a result of it's fairly rough treatment the built in microphone is now properly loose and has stopped working, superglue and a foam support to the lens hood helped for a while but it was never going to last.

I'm not especially worried about the loss of the mic (or the red recording light) as I've never captured useful sound at the side of the river and I have a separate mic for speech etc. The problem I have is that the microphone, although not working, is still attached to the camera by the connector cable. At the moment when I use the camera, every time I get it out the bag I have to push the microphone back into the rubber mount from where it will be dangling so I can use the lens rings. Its not a big problem - but it would be nicer just to take the microphone off completely. I was hoping the cable would just unplug and I could put some tape over the end but it doesn't obviously seem to.

Does anyone have any experience of this? Is it a bad idea to open up the handle and see if I can remove it? I could just glue and tape it back up periodically but it would be neater if I could take the thing off.

Thanks in advance for any advice,

Stuart

well, you could always just cut the wire... keep in mind that you'll also be losing the infrared sensor for your remote control.

Does anyone actually use the infra-red remote control? I guess it's useful if you are in the picture yourself, but any other time? I use a lanc remote control, but if I could use the infra-red from behind the camera (and it doesn't look as though you can) I would.

Yes I use the IR all the time to sync my two XHA1's time codes. One remote, two cameras and they are perfectly in sync for multi-cam shoots. You will be losing a lot of resale value by cutting that wire, use super glue and stick it in place forever.

How do you get perfect sync without genlock?

Come on Bill... that's the "pseudo sync" method :D

Come on Bill... that's the "pseudo sync" method :D

It's making the best of available resources - sort of "kitchen sync".

:-)

Nicholas

Not having the opportunity of multi-cam shoots - and not having two cameras of the same type/make anyway - that's one use I wouldn't have thought of.

Thanks for the replies - cutting the cable had occured to me but seemed a bit drastic. I can't think that I would miss the IR too much (it may well be broken along with the connections to the microphone anyway - I haven't checked).

I may try glueing it in place more firmly, superglue didn't seem to stick to the rubber well when I tried before. I thought about cutting the rubber out and using epoxy to stick the mic on solidly, but that would probably make opening the handle near impossible in the future so maybe not a great solution if something more critical needs repairing.

Does anyone actually use the infra-red remote control?

Annie, I use remote controls to shuttle and cue tapes for capture. I put the cams further back out of the way and that saves reaching over to fumble with their buttons. Thanks to my dear non video wife for that trick, it just came out of the blue. She says long term it'll save wear on the buttons so I won't need a new cam sooner :(

Cheers.

If there's enough length you could cut the wire and solder on a micro plug and socket.

... or simply re-solder the wires later using short lengths of heat shrink for insulation.

It's only audio.

Have you tried calling Canon and asking how much it would be to have it serviced, or to send you a replacement part with instructions for DIY?

Maybe this can be of any help. From the picture it doesn't look to difficult to open the handle.

Ever since I've had my XH-A1 (oooh, about a week now) the built-in microphone has been "wobbly". Is this normal or should it be rock-solidly attached to the handle?

Ever since I've had my XH-A1 (oooh, about a week now) the built-in microphone has been "wobbly". Is this normal or should it be rock-solidly attached to the handle?

Don't worry, it's normal. This thread addresses a slightly more drastic case!

Sorry about that, I appreciate that a mic hanging on by a thread is somewhat more drastic than a bit of wobble. Thanks for the reassurance. It was just me, my insecurity and naturally pessimistic nature...

(Note to self: Must book another appointment with therapist.)

How do you get perfect sync without genlock?

Bill I just set my time code on "Free-Run" it's accurate enough for me. Once both camera's are synced together the time code will run all day long even when the camera is off until you reset it. Solved so many problems for me, only discovered this after 4 years of filming! Could kick myself, my work load is halved just by that.

... if I could use the infra-red from behind the camera (and it doesn't look as though you can) I would.

Aha-- good to hear I'm not alone. I've had numerous times when I may have used it IF it would work from behind the cam, but never in front.

But the technique described by Nicholas was something I never thought of-- good idea. But rats, now I have to run out and buy a 2nd A1 in order to utilize this $5 piece of plastic... [g]

Just thought I would update this. In the end my indecision caused the problem to resolve it's self - the mic came so free that I could just take it off. It turns out that it is held on by having a plastic plate inside the handle at the end of a stem. This had snapped - hence the microphone falling off. The two ribbon cable connections just pull free and then one extra wire pulled free too.

It should be pretty easy to fix (after getting the handle open) But I'm planning on leaving it off for now as I suspect it will only fall off again due to the rough treatment my camera tends to get... I'll stick with using an external mic when I need one.

Thanks for all the comments.

Stuart

Hubert,

Where did you get the picture of the parts to the handle? Do you have more pictures of the whole camcorder or is the whole parts cataloge downloadable from somewhere?


Regards,

/Bo

Bo, i ordered a external micmount from the Canon parts department. They didn't understand wich external micmount i needed, so they emailed me that picture....
It's all i have. Maybe when i order some more parts.

On a sidenote, they charged me almost € 40,- for that micmount. And that because only the thumbscrew on top was messed.