In my first shots taken with the XHA1 I noticed I was not getting any audio input bars. I am able to get some with a Rode hooked up into the XLR jacks. The stock standard mic is a little lose and has a ding on the screen. I am concerned that the mic is bad. What are the basic seeting's for me to make sure that my "used XHA1 has a good mic"?

In my first shots taken with the XHA1 I noticed I was not getting any audio input bars. I am able to get some with a Rode hooked up into the XLR jacks.

Could be a number of things eg audio gain at manual & set very low or minimum, XLR audio on in camera setup menu (cuts out built in mic) or, less likely, internal mic failed.

The stock standard mic is a little lose...

This has come up a zillion times - there's a sticky at the top of the "Canon XH Series HDV Camcorders " forum about it, you'll find this amount of play
http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/625900-post26.html is normal.


...and has a ding on the screen.

Sorry, I don't understand what that means - an error tone or an icon or what?

I am concerned that the mic is bad. What are the basic seeting's for me to make sure that my "used XHA1 has a good mic"?

Since it's Christmas, I won't say RTFM but it's a bit long to quote all the bits here. Page 47 on of the NTSC manual gives all the info - basically you need to switch XLR input off in the menu so that the intenal mic is enabled, and make sure that it has a suitable gain - auto gain will do fine for a test.

If you didn't get a paper manual with your camera, you can download a pdf - there's a sticky about that too.