Does anyone think the zoom is noisy in the A1?

[Tony Tremble]

Originally Posted by John Dewey

So how bad is the sound of the lens motor?

I have not had a chance to actually use one of these cameras, but if the lens motor noise is too obtrusive, it may be a deal breaker for me.

I find myself shooting alot of B-Roll footage that nat sound is required along with zooming. If I have to purchase an aftermarket item just to get useable audio, that seems unacceptable to me.

I have been seriously looking into getting one of these cams, but I guess I need to find out just how bad the noise level is on this model.

The camera zoom motor only becomes noisy when it is zooming fast. I have the zoom speed set to constant so I can dial in the speed of the zoom to what I want. I have the high speed zoom setting enable so a zoom speeds above 14 there is a little noise heard when in a quiet room.

To put it in perspective once the zoom speed is set to a comparable speed of other cameras, e.g. the Sony V1, the XH-A1 is just as quiet. It's only when you engage the super fast zooms the noise could be heard and possibly recorded. On setting 16 (the highest) the zoom is lightning fast as you can forgive it a bit of noise.

Either choose a slower zoom speed or alter the way you work as passing up on this camera would be the wrong choice IMHO.

BTW the motor noise is much reduced using the zoom rocker instead of the zoom ring.

The XH-A1 is not a perfect camera but it's bloody close to it....for the price!

TT

[Bill Pryor]

It's quieter than the zoom on my $9,000 lens on the DSR500.