I figure it would be help to show others some things to watch out for. Here is my story:

Having used many camcorders in the past I presumed with everything on auto there would be no audio distortion; AGC would take care of everything. I have never experienced distortion with a cam on full auto. At a gospel banquet the guy had the audio cabinets turned up full blast, and to walk past them I had to hold my ear while taping. Although it sounded like I was in a war zone at times I figured since I heard no noticible distortion comming from the mammoth speaker cabinets there would be no distortion on my GL2; but there was; and it was on auto AGC, although I was adjusting the exposure manually. To top it off some of the female gospel singers were litterally SCREAMING into the mic. When I got home and heard the tape I was really scared. After searching diligently for an inexpensive sound editing remedy and realizing I could find none at last the idea came to me that I saw a cam running a far distance from the speakers, taking what turned out to be very horrible over exposed video, but the audio was usable. At this moment I am running the analog 8 mm video into my GL2 and recording it as DV! I will use the soundtrack from the DV converted 8mm when necessary. WHEW! Saved again.

So what's your story?

Filming and hearing thru the HeadPhones that I was live and good. . .. Forgot to hit the RECORD button .. watched the first part of the Best man's speech thru the e/p and heard it very very clearly .. nothing recorded to tape! There is a lot to be said for 2 or 3 camera work . . NOW I watch the counter "rolling" . . give me a minute I'll come up wirth a few more of my blunders!!!

Grazie

See this thread (http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?s=&threadid=10683).

. . oh yeah here's another .. Leaving the Exposure lock on to get the bride's skin tones, while shooting against the sun . . and THEN leaving it there so the dress WAS blown WHITE! IDIOT!!! . . no detail HORRID!! - Well it wasn't that bad and was "just" borderline.

Grazie . . .

i once had put my camera on the fast zoom speed. Started filming a wedding. Could not get in early to set up properly. Started filming. And when i tried to slow zoom a couple of mins into it i got a nasty shock. And the camera does not allow you to change the zoom speed whilst your in record so could not change speed for whole wedding! (did not want to miss any footage at all as was single camera and only a very brief reg office wedding!)

Turn on attenuator and you'll be OK! I actualy have set the "user button" to this MIC ATTENUATOR so I can switch it ON/OFF whenn needed.

For zero noise you could also set to manual and turn the sound way down (I did this so I could record COLOR BARS with no sound at the begining of tape) and forget it like that about 10 minutes... You'll feel a nice cold flow on your spine when you'll realize you just shoot an entire dance with no sound!

I keep mic atten on all the time now .. used on numerous projects .. keeps me happy .. makes for very clear and crispy interviews in noisy places AND keeps th3 dance music fom making the horrid Wuump wuppmmm Wmmpphh sound . . Hmm.. cold down the spine? Nice ! ! !

Grazie

what is an attenuator?

Excellent question!!

Well . . here's a man in the streets version of it .. ahem . .

To attenuate means to weaken a force or the intensity of an effect . . mostly . . now used to weaken a "signal" within a certain "band" or frequency. BUT this has the effect of weakening the whole thing .. okay . once "weakened" to the range or band you wish your recording will only "record" that which is allowed to pass .. I think. . .

A "shot" gun mic works on the principle of "removing sideways" noise that could "affect" the receiving module. Thereby cutting a hole through the noise in front of you . . this is different but points out the effect of blocking to create a "quiet" area in front of the receptor. Mic attenuation does this electronically . . . yeah? Still confused . .wait for a more descriptive answer . . it'll come , . . .

Grazie

Attenuation is the inverse of amplification.

. .there you go . . !

Scenario:- had my XM2 for 3 days only.

On 3rd day ... my first wedding (one Cam) I had no sound out of of my new headphones (panic had already set in). I was in a state for the whole service even though I could see the bars flickering in the viewfinder.

Not till I got home and checked the manual did I find out the rocker below the menu button increased the headphones level ;)

Never again will I go unprepared, I have since spent a lot of time to learn the basic camera controls (blindfolded) before shooting again.

I still learn a new trick daily ;) a lot from this Forum.....

Ohhhh...thats why I could not hear thru my headphones too well on my last job...