gh3 audio

[Ron Fabienke]

Lets talk some more please about the sound meters info that disappears and the headphone jack itself.

Some have mentioned the trick, and it does work, of briefly blocking the EVF while recording footage which blacks your displays out for an instant, but then brings up your VU meters and other information for a brief period of time again. Annoying as hell to have to do this but it does bring up the meters.

I don't know if all lenses do this but have learned at least with my 12-35mm Panny 2.8 zoom that slightly racking your focus or your zoom ring ALSO brings up the displays the whole time you are doing it, and for the short duration when you stop. Depending on what you are shooting you may or may not have the luxury of that. In run and gun it is pretty common to be riding your focus manually, especially if you have a loupe such as the Carry Speed VF4.

But now, very important to me, as I am considering to buy a new pair of Etymotic ER4P ear bud / phones to replace my old ER6s that wore out with the wimpy cables. The ER4Ps supposedly do not need a lot of amplification. Which would be a good thing because I (think) the headphone jack even at full volume does not have a lot of juice. What do any of you that are monitoring with phones think about that?

I was at a very loud reception last night with a band and a DJ cranking high decibel sound and I was trying an inexpensive pair of JVC HA-FX35-B ear buds I had read very good reviews on, from Amazon for $32, which were supposed to have pretty good sound isolation. I had no prayer in that room hearing the sound through the camera. In years past in identical situations with my ER6 Etymotics and the jacks from my shoulder camcorders the sound was antenuated a similar amount but I could turn the volume up to solidly monitor my sound.

Maybe those JVCs in fact were not fitting me well enough with their tips which you compress first and then push in and let expand, compared to my old ER6s with the silicone baffles you push into the canal, but my impression even going to a different room to listen early on to some of my recorded sound, was that at full volume the phone jack's amp is not very strong.

I'd hate to spend well over $200 again for the supposedly better ER4Ps only to find that I still could not hear the camera's output, even with 32-35db attenuation from the ear buds, in a loud room. Are there any opinions on this please?


BTW, I want to clarify I am only hoping to hear from others if my perception is correct on the output of the phone jack not being very robust. I fully understand this is not a dedicated video recording device. To have stronger volume from the phone jack, if it is weak and not the fault of the JVC ear buds, would likely take more battery power as well.

[William Hohauser]

The solution is either closed ear muff headphones, which don't really work in extremely loud environments, or just trust the microphone by occasionally checking the VU meters. Personally I despise earbuds and will use a cheap set of light open muff headphones in b-roll circumstances and a good pair of Sennheiser closed muff for music situations or interviews. Closed muff headphones will get you thru most circumstances although they are bulky.