Hi all,

I have just bought an XM2 and I want to use it as my second camera as I already use an XL1s.

There is a loud whirring noise from the camera when a tape is in it, this is also very noticeable on play back, is this a common problem with them?
If yes what external microphone do you all find works best at keeping this noise to a minimum?

Also the 16:9 modes puts out some pretty good results, do many of you use it in this mode all of the time?

Any help would be great as this is a fantastic camera with first class picture quality, this camera has just as good picture as my XL1s.

Many thanks
Paul

No this isn't normal

I agree with Nat. I can hardly hear tape sound from XM2 except when on rewind. I use/re-use Canon DVM-E60 tapes, no problem. My sound settings are at default I think. Tell us more Paul.
Brendan

This is really worrying news, honestly when the tape is in the camera in either cam or vcr mode the whirring is as loud as if it was rewinding in my XL1s and I have a wee 1 chip sony I use for putting footage onto my pc and it is so much quieter as well.

On the XL1s if the tape gets noisy like this the heads need re-aligned or replaced. The camera is about 9 months old and the person I bought it of has done about 40 weddings with it as his main camera from new. The camera has been well cared for and has not as much as a scratch on it. I thought that a good external mic might cure this problem, do you have to buy an external mic with onboard power or can they be powered from the camera, I don't like the thought of having to worry about more batteries in the microphone as well.

What do you all use?

A Sennheiser MKE300D is a small step up from the on-board mike. It is mono, directional and is powered by a small mercury cell, which lasts a long time. The mike has a hot shoe fitting, but I find that it picks up motor noise when used directly on the camera. I normally use the mike mounted in a Beyer EA96 mount, using a short length of 20mm conduit made to be a tight fit on the rear of the Mike.

A far better solution is the Sennheiser K6/ME66 (or any other capsule in the range) and a Rycote softy. These come either self-powered or phantom powered - the XM2 has no means of powering a mike.

I'd send it in for service, on the notion that a noisy transport may be close to failure. In the US, the cost would be about $250-300. Then you would have virtually a new camera--the electronics age hardly at all.

Any good, sensitive mic mounted on the camera is going to pick up the nearby noise. That's what mics do.

A Sennheiser MKE300D is a small step up from the on-board mike. It is mono, directional and is powered by a small mercury cell, which lasts a long time. The mike has a hot shoe fitting, but I find that it picks up motor noise when used directly on the camera. I normally use the mike mounted in a Beyer EA96 mount, using a short length of 20mm conduit made to be a tight fit on the rear of the Mike.

A far better solution is the Sennheiser K6/ME66 (or any other capsule in the range) and a Rycote softy. These come either self-powered or phantom powered - the XM2 has no means of powering a mike.

Thanks Alan,

I'l go down the route of the MKE300D with the adaptor. I'm not sure what the adpator and conduit set up looks like, could you send me a picture of it please to locktightalarms@hotmail.com.

Thanks to everyone for their help and I will have to send the camera in for a service as the playback noise is getting worse.

Paul

A significant step up from the MKE300 is the Rode VideoMic, and it also costs less. It comes with with a built in shockmount and it will apply mono sound to both channels without an adapter, unlike the MKE300. If you listen to online samples, the Rode even sounds better than the ME66. It does use a 9V battery, but that's a small penalty in an outstanding mic for $150.

Fred does the mono mean it only records audio on one channel and the Stereo records on both like the on board mic.

This is bound to reduce the sound quality, I might look into the Rhode model, what site have you heard the sample sounds on?

Paul

A significant step up from the MKE300 is the Rode VideoMic, and it also costs less. It comes with with a built in shockmount and it will apply mono sound to both channels without an adapter, unlike the MKE300. If you listen to online samples, the Rode even sounds better than the ME66. It does use a 9V battery, but that's a small penalty in an outstanding mic for $150.

I have done some reading on the Rode mic and it also has an led to show you when the battery is getting low and Rode says it will give you 100 hours use with the standard 9V battery and as you said Fred its half the price. Is this the model you use on your own camera and if yes whay type of wid shield did you get for it?

Paul