What video cameras do to audio

[MaellaJohn]

It never really occurred to me, until I really started getting into audio engineering, that most home video cameras affect the sound they record a good amount.
All the cameras I have used to record video have compressed the piss out of the sound, had what seems like a big high pass, etc.

Does anybody know more specifically how audio is processed through a camera mic?

 

[Loren Littlejohn]

Camera mics of the home variety are pretty much only good for voice as that's what they were designed to capture.

I don't know why home cameras don't include a 8mm jack for using other mics, it's pretty fucking dumb actually.

 

[MarcusGHedwig]

(3.5 mm jack )

 

[TheDriller]

Camera mics of the home variety are pretty much only good for voice as that's what they were designed to capture.

I don't know why home cameras don't include a 8mm jack for using other mics, it's pretty fucking dumb actually.

Simple, the cost of adding the jack would add up to hundreds of thousands of dollars (or millions) over the production run, and only a tiny fraction of customers would use it.

 

[MaellaJohn]

Simple, the cost of adding the jack would add up to hundreds of thousands of dollars (or millions) over the production run, and only a tiny fraction of customers would use it.

Yeah, if we're talking about the types of cameras you can buy at Wal Mart for $100-$250 or so, I doubt anybody would use such a feature.

And, if you're going to record something professionally that will also be recorded on video, it's really easy to just cut the audio recorded by the video out and replace it with the miked recording.

 

[MindMunch]

Good cameras have mic input, and they´re not always super expensive. For example, Canon T3i Rebel has mic input, the video quality of a Canon 7D (awesome full HD), a variangle LCD (which is great for filming), can accept any lens that would fit in a cropped like 7D and 60D and is considerably lighter, cheaper and more compact than these others.