The XH A1 has a bracket for holding an external microphone. I've tried everything I can think of to keep noise from my hands operating the camera from being picked up by the mic. I've wrapped my shotgun in foam, bubble pack and toilet tissue.
Any suggestions as to how to make that bracket useful? Thanks

The only thing I can think of is to not use it and use a shock mount instead. If that can't be done because you're using the shoe for a light or something else then there are Y brackets available that connect to the shoe on the camera and have 2 shoes for accessories. You can mount a light on one and the mic in a shock mount in the other.
The whole point is to isolate the mic from the camera.

Original J-Rod Twin (http://web.me.com/jeffyr/Jrod/Original_J-Rod_Twin.html)

Versions of the J-Rod are suggested quite often here eg:
http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/sony-hvr-z1-hdr-fx1/68872-anyone-using-j-rods.html
http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/canon-xh-series-hdv-camcorders/99326-what-mic-fits-xh-a1-slot-2.html
http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/sony-hvr-z1-hdr-fx1/113274-fx1-videomic.html

Mike,

you must have the A1 mic gain screwed way up if you're hearing hand noise via a shotgun, in the A1 external mount with bubble pack. Which shotgun is it?

Normally after you start the cam, the only other hand action is the zoom rocker on top of the A1 .. and you can hear that! hand noise?

However there's a stack of items available and I find the Rode SM5 - Shotgun Microphone Suspension SM5 B&H Photo Video very good for the job. Maybe a pair of light woolen gloves will help .. and for the cold weather you're having up there.

Cheers.

Allan has a point.

You must have the shotgun from hell OR there's something else wrong.

Do check you have a proper balance wired XLR to XLR cable, and not a dodgy unbalance wired knock off.

If you're going from balanced XLR at the mic to the unbalanced 3.5 mm mic input, you need a proper balanced to unbalanced transformer in between.

Try replacing the cable entirely, it is possible that it is, in itself, microphoning due to either dodgy wiring or a faulty joint, and ensure both plugs are firmly seated in their respective sockets.

If all of the above proves to be kosher, I can't think of anything else but a faulty mic or the aforementioned transducer from Hades.

If it's the latter, the only thing you can do is get it as far from the camera as possible (the next room?) or replace it with something a tad less touchy.


CS

I created a really good shockmount for my Sennheiser gun mic out of these (these are in the UK but I bet you can get them anywhere):

AntiVibration Microphone Holder : Mic Holders : Maplin (http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=9830&C=AffilWin71959&T=!!!gid!!!_14452044&clickref=1291781413z8pr60egqxdmadimmx6x93)

Buy two of them, get a threaded stand adaptor and screw it halfway into the base of one mount, then screw the other mount into it so the two mounts are joined at the base. Then flip the mic-holder bit of both mounts up at right-angles, then stick some superglue into the threaded stand adaptor and turn the shockmounts (before the glue sets!) so the two mic holders are in line with each other. The base of the two holders is the right size and long enough to fit into the circular clamp on top of the XHA1, so I just pop it in there, tighten up the clamp, and it's good to go. Obviously the mic ends up sitting higher up from the camera than it did before, but it's really great at isolating the mic noise and is strong enough to hold quite a heavy mic. I've got quite a thick XLR cable going into the mic, but a thinner one would also isolate any vibration coming from the camera into the mic (but doesn't seem to be an issue with my mic).

Hope that description makes sense - I'll take a photo of it if not.

Not as elegant as that Rode thing (but cheaper!)

The XH A1 has a bracket for holding an external microphone. I've tried everything I can think of to keep noise from my hands operating the camera from being picked up by the mic. I've wrapped my shotgun in foam, bubble pack and toilet tissue.
Any suggestions as to how to make that bracket useful? Thanks

1. I had that problem on one of the first gigs I had using my then new XHA1. The hand-movement noise was picked up by the on-board mike because I had forgotten to go into the camera's "audio settings" menu and switch the audio to XLR inputs. My experience is that the XHA1 on-camera mic is much more sensitive to handling noise.

2. Another thing to check is the XLR settings in the camera's "audio settings" menu. You might have the XLR gain set to +12dB. If you do, go into "XLR Gain Up" and switch it to "off."

3. Since you mention using bubble wrap -- which can make its own noise, by the way -- I gather than the barrel on your shotgun has a diameter smaller than that of your XH's mic clamp. On the XH and a couple of other cameras, I've had pretty good luck using large plumbing O-rings as spacers. I think I used # 95 or # 96 O-rings. (Your local hardware store should have them.) I rolled three over the barrel when the XH's clamp grabbed the mike. (Also works well with Sony cameras, too.) These are not as good as the isolation rigs recommended above, but they worked well enough to be worth far more than the $2 that they cost.

First be sure not the tighten the mic holder screw too tight. It will compress that damping material in the holder and cause transmission of vibration. Tighten it just enough to keep the mic from slipping out.

Be sure the cable from the mic to the camcorder input is free and not in stressed to the point where it could couple vibration.

Be sure your mic is one that can tolerate a bit of handling, some are much better than others in this respect.

Use of AGC/ALC for sound can cause increased pickup of ambient and handling sounds during otherwise quiet scenes.

Very cold conditions can make shock mounts stiff, less effective. In any case, for best sound get the mic off the camcorder and close to the talent

I found that the mic holder transmitted loads of handling noise, whatever microphone I used.

In the end I took it off, covered the remaing screw holes and now use a Lyre holder from Rycote.

http://rycote.com/images/uploads/technical_articles/Lyre_Technical_Notes_and_Graph.pdf