Re: What's up?
 

Hi Lynne

That's an awful lot to ask for the price you pay for a Hero! DSLR's like the Canon 5DII which cost over $3K for just the body also have terrible preamps on the audio channels and despite the price they don't apologise.

GoPro make awesome little cameras at a very small price and excellent value for money...to expect XLR audio quality for that cost is a little much surely?? As already said, if you don't like the audio then use a DVR .... most DSLR users who spend money in bucket-loads on their video gear STILL will go out and buy voice recorders rather than use the cameras audio channel.

Chris

Re: What's up?
 

Pretty tough to protect a camera from deep immersion and still maintain good audio. It's generally an either-or choice due to the thick-walled housings necessary to provide a watertight space under pressure.

Getting good audio is a whole art in itself, requiring well-placed mics which can cost more than a GoPro. In my situation I just want audio that's decent enough to enable decent sync in post production. The talent is already wearing wireless mics and that's the production audio.

I did come up with a solution for the GoPro that works OK as far as reference audio is concerned.

I used a skeletal housing and covered the big ports in the side packing tape, sealed with gaskets made of 3M's VHB tape. The result is a housing with very thin sidewalls that are waterproof.

It's completely splash proof. Can't immerse it. But the thin sidewalls now allow sound to pass through relatively freely.

Re: What's up?
 

I actually agree that there's plenty of missed potential there - I just don't feel like it has much to do with the onboard preamps, and I disagree that anyone would take Sony to task for using low quality preamps on the camera. If you want to get some really unique, innovative, and also clean, high-quality audio in an extreme sports situation you're going to need more and better equipment than you'll ever find built into a helmet cam, regardless of the manufacturer.