Beeping Sound on XF100/105

[Tom Gresham]

Has anyone run into this?

On both our XF100 and XF105, when recording, I'm hearing a very faint beeping sound.

It's like three beeps, or chirps, rapidly. Then a second delay, then the three "chirps." One camera guy couldn't hear it in the headphones, but I could.

I can hear it on playback in the camera. It is not there when just listening to the audio if I'm not recording.

AND . . . it's not there when I play the file on the computer.

Any ideas?

[Chris Soucy]

Hi, Tom............

Interesting one. Sounds like demodulated RF (mobile phone etc) getting fed into the headphone amp.

As it's not on the file it's not making it into the audio input chain, which is a plus.

Just as a punt, when you can hear the beeps, are you/ others using exactly the same headphone set?


CS

[Tom Gresham]

Chris,

It wasn't the usual sound of a cell phone "phoning home" that we are familiar with.

The other camera operator used the same headphones and could not hear it, but he said his hearing isn't that good.

I'll try it with different headphones.

Just a really strange one.

[Alan McCormick]

"The other camera operator used the same headphones and could not hear it, but he said his hearing isn't that good."

As you get older you lose the high frequencies in hearing and that is possibly the reason why your colleague did not hear it. I remember having a "test" between 3 of us many years ago and was gobsmacked by the difference in sound frequencies we could hear. Being the oldest of the three by 10-20 years I came last :(

[Shawn Bosworth]

I recently purchased an XF100 for some video projects at work and am picking up the same beeping you described. It is faint when using the internal mic but very noticeable when using external mics attached to the XLR.

Did you ever find a solution to this?

Cheers

[Martin Evans]

I also get this beeping sound when recording. Very low level on balanced xlr inputs but noticeable when using the 3.5mm jack. Its on the recorded file also. Not a major problem since it can be easily filtered out in post (notch around 400hz I think). Probably some camera RF that's getting into the mic input preamps and being demodulated, still annoying on a pro camera though. I doubt there's a fix.

Martin

[Tom Gresham]

For me, it makes the cameras unusable. Why would anyone try to produce quality video with a camera that puts a beeping sound on the audio tracks?

CPS has my three cameras. My conversations with them don't leave me with much confidence that they can address it. Sounds like they only recently started believing customers who were telling them about it.

Hope they can fix them. We have a week-long shoot coming up -- three episodes of a network series.

Otherwise, there will be an urgent call to Lens Rentals. ;)

[Don Palomaki]

Can someone post a snip of a WAV file with a sample of the beeping, as it is recorded (e.g., extracted from the file, without any other editing, filtering, or gain changes?

[Tom Gresham]

Here is the sound. I've increased the gain a lot in post, to make it easier to hear. That's why there is a lot of "hash" in the file.

This was recorded with the audio on manual, nothing plugged into the XLRs, and the audio controls turned all the way down.

The sound can be heard only when wearing really good headphones.

I talked with CPS this morning. They have bumped this up to a higher level of tech to deal with.

[Don Palomaki]

How much gain did you apply?

Almost sounds like something is counting down (or up) at 2 second intervals.

Is it there in all environments, venues, connected accessories, and recording modes, or just some?

Are any of the wireless modes enabled, or active, in use?

(Reminds a bit me a bit of an issue I had with an XL1 and the XLR adapter. With a few battery (not all) packs a very low level noise bled into the audio.)

[Tom Gresham]

Not sure exactly how much I brought up the gain in the editing program. It was probably in the area of 20 dB.

No wireless attached. No external mics of any kind attached. Audio set to manual. Levels turned to zero.

I'll be interesting to see what Canon says. Hope they can run it down. This is repeatable, and it's on several cameras.

[Don Palomaki]

A most unusual sound.
- The tones in the sample Tom provided are recorded about 5.5 dB above the noise floor.
- Attached is mono sample, with a bit of filtering applied to make it clearer to hear
- The tone bursts are regular, about every 1.9 seconds.
- They are comprised of sequential bursts of tone at about 1450 and 1780- Hz.
- The bursts appear to be comprised of two or three sub-bursts of tones of about 0.14 seconds each, but may be more complex than that.
- The first burst in the sample is somewhat different from the remainder
- If taken as a binary sequence it might be something like: AAA, ABA, AA, BAA, ABA, ABA, ABB

I wonder if this is related to lens control, or hunting for a wireless connection, or a similar function?

[Roger Van Duyn]

Sounds similar to a modem from "the olden days" seeking a "handshake." Does the camera have some sort of wireless upload feature that may be turned on in the settings, even though you're not using it?

Some of the newer cameras can upload proxies.

[Martin Evans]

Tom, I wouldn't say it was unusable. If I use the xlr inputs the beeping is at a level low enough to be Inaudible in most real video sound track scenarios. It is annoying though.

Originally Posted by Tom Gresham

For me, it makes the cameras unusable. Why would anyone try to produce quality video with a camera that puts a beeping sound on the audio tracks?

CPS has my three cameras. My conversations with them don't leave me with much confidence that they can address it. Sounds like they only recently started believing customers who were telling them about it.

Hope they can fix them. We have a week-long shoot coming up -- three episodes of a network series.

Otherwise, there will be an urgent call to Lens Rentals. ;)

[Tom Gresham]

Followup. Canon CPS said they can't reproduce it. Strange.

They have returned the cameras. I'm going to test them again to see if the beeping is still there. If so, . . .

???

Might be time to get that Sony FS7 I've been looking at. :) We have the FS700.