I'm recording a singer this evening with my HV30 and will be using the Rode Videomic. I've not done this before, and to be honest I do not know the cam well.

What I mean is I usually use the HV30 as a backup for video camera, NEVER as a primary cam. I did use it with a wirless mic once and the auto audio gain was weird.

My question is this: will the auto gain work well with the Videomic? Or must I use manual?

My larger cams have had such fantastic auto gains I've never needed to monitor them manually.

By the way, I'll probably be less than 20 feet from the singer and she will be using a handheld mic.

My two HV-30s are the B and C cameras when I shoot gigs with musicians and singers. Both have the Rode Videomic and it works well, but the audio is mono. I have shotgun mics on all three cameras, but use the audio recorded seperately on my Zoom H4N mostly and delete the other audio tracks in the final editing.

However, the Rode Videomic and HV-30 are made for each other and give good results. Not great, but good. Most often it's good enough, but not necessarily good enough to a musician's trained ear.

Roger, thank you for your reply, I much appreciate it.

To be clear, you run the Videomic using the auto gain setting? Does the auto gain work with the external mic?

Thanks again for the help.

Wait, I'm not seeing a manual auto setting for the camera, I thought it had that option...am I wrong?

Actually, I just plug the Videomic in. You can adjust the volume with the little joystick, don't trust the levels meter, use headphones. You will need to toggle the AV jack in the settings to plug the headphones in.

The most common problem I have is forgetting to turn the Videomic on. The second problem is leaving the videomic on after I'm done and then a couple of weeks later finding the battery dead.

Hope this helps.

Hi...just noticed this thread! I just bought a Canon HV40....returned the camera twice because of drops!...swapped it out for a new one! On my third and hoping that my adjustments are wrong! If I return this one, they'll think I'm really nuts! Recording a band (Jazz) during rehearsals. Attenuator is on, adjust the volume level so just below -12 db..goes over on occasion! I have 1/2 second drops in audio during various parts of my tape! Coming directly out the main outs of a mixer to the camera mic input! Using condenser mics going to preamp then to mixer inputs! Using Panasonic Pro Quality tapes! I'm going nuts with this...can't seem to figure it out! 1st tape had 1 - 1/2 second drop...2nd tape had 7 - 1/2 second drops in audio! Just got off the phone with Canon support...told me to set windscreen to off...but recording in studio with no outside wind?? Is windscreen that sensitive! Will attenutor cause drops in audio if it peaks??? Will windscreen cause drops in audio?? I'm helpless here...don't want to return to Canon for repair..camera only a few weeks old! Anybody have any suggestions??? Thanx!

Hey Jeff, just noticed this thread, how did you get on with your recording?
Ive got a RODE stereo video mic that Ive used for about a year doing live music, while the mic in normal settings sounds amazing, with loud live music it still "clips" even with the attenuation turned right down on the cam. You end up with a very low audio waveform that is still distorted.
It went back to RODE once and they gave me a brand new one but it was the same thing, so now I use a H4N in 4 channel mode to get the stereo feed from the desk and also the room, and a RODE NT4 on the cam. Between the 3 files I blend to my liking and get something usable .
Of course if the sound guy screws you with his levels the dream is over but you can still salvage what you can from the room mics.
Heres one i put up the other day
YouTube - Ladies & Gentlemen- SHORT STACK (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3STdbJE44M)