Video camera or camera and sound recorder

[iainnic]

So, for the past while Ive been carrying my camera kit and also a video camera.

This year it struck me that most of the video I use doesnt have sound from the recording, and that my panasonic was capable of recording video but not sound (GX7)

So my thought was could I just use the video capabilities of the GX7 and use a sound recorder when I needed to have the sound (voice , ambience, commentary etc). This would negate the need for the video camera, Rhode mike, extra batteries etc

Is anyone using that type of setup to capture their video ? Any views or "lessons learned" from that ?

[g6snl]

My concern would be if you only have one vid cam and it fails, it will be when the best footage has just presented its self. Of course you can add sound in edit which I do a lot of. I considered sound and vid recording but decided its a lot more work to edit and get timing correct. But you may be much more capable than myself.


g6snl -Tim

[backofbeyond]

As Tim mentioned it's a whole load of work to marry the sound and vision at the editing stage, particularly getting the timing right. That's where the guy with the clapperboard you saw in old movies came from - at least you'd have a fixed start point.

The up side with recording sound separately is that you can get much better sound quality - something that's lacking with a lot of "enthusiast" videos and why people often just strip the sound out altogether and put rock music or something in instead. Half decent sound recorders are not that expensive (compared to the cameras anyway) and I had a list of a few that were recommended when I did a course last year but, as always, I can't find it when I need it.

Having to carry and set up separate sound equipment as well as a camera is a step too far for me at the moment. Fine if the purpose of the trip is to document it - like a tv crew, but if it's a trip first - and particularly if you're travelling with others who may not share your "passion" - it can get very complicated and time consuming if you have to consider vision and sound needs separately every time you want to record something.

My half way house atm is to use a camera (I'm using a DSLR) that can take a separate plug in mike as often it's the microphone rather than the sound recording electronics that lets many cameras down. I've not done enough with that set-up yet to have a feel for what I'm doing right / wrong but so far the sound side seems to be a lot better. At least the two start off in sync.