I am having major noise problems from my Firestore FS4 Pro.
I purchased a camera kit which consisted of a holster and a Manfrotto 482LCD adjustable accessory shoe attachment, and mounted the FS pro on the accessory shoe and ran a test recording, but the recorded noise was unacceptable. I had read on this forum about the fan noise on the standard FS4 but I was led to believe that the latest Pro versions with the latest firmware had sorted this out, but not in my case.
I paid an engineer to make me a bracket with accessory shoes that was bolted to my tripod approx. 3 Ft. from my microphone thinking this would cure the problem, but during the recording of a wedding last week the distorted sound in the church and at the speeches was really noticable ( looks like I'll have to give the happy couple some discount).
I made test recordings this morning and found that when I removed the FS4 Pro from the bracket on the tripod the sound completely dissappeared,
so the problem is not the SOUND from the fans but is the VIBRATION from either the fans or Hard Drive or both.
I tried recording with a microphone mounted in a cradle and this cured the problem but has left me with another, the cradle is mounted in my accessory shoe and I need that shoe for my VL3 video light and other accessories.
I have thought of putting rubber washers behind the bracket, but the Manfrotto 482LCD has a vibration absorbing rubber washer but the vibration still gets through.
Has anyone else had this problem and come up with a solution or have I got an overly noisey FS4.
My Camcorders are Canon XL2, Canon XL1s and Canon XM2.

Thanks,
David

Hi David,

The noise is probably coming from the vibration of the HDD in the FS-4 Pro. The fan only comes on after around 15 minutes of recording. So if the noise you are experiencing is constant then it is probably just the HDD. But maybe it is a combination of the two.

I would recommend finding a way to isolate the accessory adapter which you have attached to your tripod. When you say that it is bolted to your tripod it sounds like you have bolts going through one of it's legs! I'm guessing that you are using some kind of clamp, like a super clamp. Try wrapping the leg of your tripod with foam rubber or water pipe insolation where the clamp grips the leg. That should stop the bad vibrations.

I hope that that helps.

Daniel,
Thanks for your reply.
I tried as you suggested and Isolated the Bracket from the tripod by putting rubber grommits on either side of the tripod leg, I even put plastic sheath from electrical flex under the nuts to isolate the nut from the tripod leg, but unbelievably the sound from the vibrations are still as bad, it hasn't improved it one little bit.
Looks like it will have to be sent back to Focus for the second time.

David

David,

Is your FS-4 pro loud or does it vibrate dramatically when you hold it in your hand?

And I have to say it sounds more and more as though you drilled holes in the leg of your tripod. How do you collapse the tripod after using it? (if that is indeed what you have done) And if you have bolts running into the leg of your tripod, I think that may be a contributing factor to the vibration being translated to the tripod and ultimately the camera. I imagine that bolts are harder to isolate than a clamp.

But still it does sound like your FS-4 is vibrating too much. I built a holder for my XL-1s which basically has the FS-4 strapped to the XL-1s' handle. I have a little bit of hot glued hard rubber between the clip holding the FS-4 and my camera and that seems to isolate the FS-4 enough. But I have to admit that I have written off using any audio from the onboard mic when the FS-4 is in action, because sooner or later the fan is going to go on, so I haven't tested that set-up well.

I wish I could help you more. Good luck.

I.M.O. you need to do as follows (based on my experience with a XL1-S and an FS4):

Use a Lightwave MiniMount to isolate your microphone from the camera's body.

Mount the FS4 not on the hot shoe but instead on the mounting plate of the MA-100.

Best regards.
Arnaldo