Sony Z1 and FX1 various questions 2004 - 2005

[Chad Huntley]

Just got myself a FX1, and am looking into buying a case for it. I'm not planning on bringing it on a plane or anything, I just need something that will store the camera and some accessories. So I'm not looking into anything expensive.

What would you guys recommend for it? Soft, hard? Any experience with a Vanguard Hard Case? Thanks!

[Boyd Ostroff]

Welcome to DVinfo Chad, and congratulations on the new camera! Here's the definitive thread on this topic, so you might want to continue this discussion there:

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=39573

[George Griswold]

Wanted to pass this along. I tried the Anton Bauer Stasis, it is too small for the Z1U, returned that and tried this Frezzolini Camera support-- a must when you use a wide angle adapter because the camera gets front heavy.

http://www.frezzi.com/stable_cam_fly...amflyernew.pdf

Check it out.
George

[Alex Raskin]

It seems like FX1's electronic sounds are bleeding into its sound recording circuit.

I noticed that when Autofocus is hunting, or when other electronic process occurs - like zooming - these events generate swishing alien noises in FX1's sound track.

They are not motor sounds picked up by internal mic by air, since these noises are the same even if I use external line input.

They sound more like electronic signals that *control* the motors.

To re-create the problem: make sure you are recording in a quiet room. It doesn't matter whether internal or external mics are used, but since internal mics are noisier, it'll mask the problem...

Now, start recording. Pan the camera around so to force Autofocus to hunt. Then listen to this recording in your NLE at high volume.

Hear the alien swishing noises? :)

Now, the cam can also exhibit a ground looping problem - but it can be easily rectified by putting a line-level isolating transformer between the external mic preamp and the FX1 line in.

However the swishing electronic noises I'm talking about are generated INSIDE the camera itself, seemingly no matter whether it is connected to any external devices or not.

Have you noticed this problem?

How do you rectify it?

[Alex Raskin]

The "alien noise" effects cannot be heard in the environments where there's any audible background noise like muted street noise etc.

I only get them in studio recording environment.

I made a ton of experiments, and the alien noises are always there WHEN THERE's A QUIET BUT AUDIBLE SOUND, like subtle clothes rustling.

Example: with manual sound level dial at 2 to 10, the ambient noise is audible and is always distorted with the "alien" swishes.

With dial on 1, no noise and no swishes. But as soon as the cam hears something it can pick up - like me approaching the mic while talking - it starts swishing on quiet sounds, then swishing goes away (or rather is being masked?) as I talk louder into the mic directly.

So my understanding is that the swishing I hear is actually a distorted sound due to the cam's sound compression algorythm.

When there's speech over clothes' rustling, the speech sounds fine but I can still hear the "alien noises" in pauses where there supposed to be no ambient background noise.

I now think what I hear is simply a sound compression artifact, since the cam's video is multiplexed with audio that's MPEG-1 Audio Level II compressed at 48Khz 16bit 384Kbps bandwidth.

Judging by the specs I'd expect a cleaner sound in quiet environments, but apparently it ain't so.