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C300 Mklll Noise Floor/Hiss


Ian Lishman

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Hi Ian,

I am not familiar with those 2 Zoom recorders, but they do look interesting.  I have a Roland R-88 that is not the most portable recorder/mixer, but it has the quietest preamps of all my recorders, and that includes the overly expensive Sound Devices offerings.  The nice thing about the Zoom H6 is that it can be camera mounted and tethered to the camera via line input.  The other units might tend to be somewhat cumbersome and is the reason that the other units, the R-88 included, sit on a shelf in a closet.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Hi Ian,

I don't know if you have purchased the Rode NTG-5 microphones, or had just rented one, but I have just placed an order for one to be used with my R5c, and I hope that it lives up to the hype.  I have been happy with the NTG-3, but its length and weight are not the best combination for the R5c/Tascam setup, while performance on the C300 Mk III is stellar.

Regards,

Ron

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Hi Ron,

I've just mentioned this in my late reply to your mail. I do hope it works out for you. I liked it for its super-sensitivity - enabling me to turn down my 'noisy' pre-amp. But that wind thing you mentioned is a concern. Will be interesting to find how you find it. I wish the R5C would come into UK!!

All best,

Ian

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Hi Ian,

The NTG-5 arrived a short-while ago—it is incredibly light weight—and I connected the Tascam CA-XLR2-C to the R5c's multipurpose shoe and then the NTG-5.  The Tascam unit requires 2 AA batteries to provide 48v phantom power to the mic, and with a pair of Bayer Dynamics headphones plugged in it is totally silent.  I have the gain on the tascam turned to the halfway mark and the camera's level meters are where they should be for adequate volume.  Next step is to see how it sounds when I load the clip into Resolve.

The mic comes with a pistol grip, a foam cozy as well as a dead cat and a few other accessories, most of which will not be used.

I will write more when I have some concrete results via the computer playback.  

Regards,

Ron

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The NTG-5 works nicely for voice, but there is a major Canon oversight on the R5c.  The camera's internal microphone cannot be turned off.  It picks up ambient and wind noise and there is no way to cancel that in camera.  However, I think that when an external mic is connected the internal mic records to a separate channel, and if I am correct it should be mutable in post.  I will check into that in the morning.

Regards,

Ron

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Hi Ian,

The internal mic records to channels 3&4, and can be easily muted or deleted in post, at least such is possible in Resolve Studio 17.  The NTG-5 is perfect for the R5c, given its light weight and short length.  Frequency response is good, as is side rejection, and the mic comes with a grip—I have no use for it—a foam windscreen and a dead cat, as well as an accessory mount.

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Hi all, I just wanted to chime in and say that I went through the same thing a few months ago. I thought something was wrong, but turns out the noise floor is just kinda high. It's the same on both my C300mkiii and C70. It's confusing because canon calibrated their audio pots to be basically unusable beyond 4 or 5 on the dial. It seems like something is broken, but it's not. Ultimately, I haven't found it to be an issue. But yeah, I wouldn't try to run dynamic mics or anything that outputs a weak signal. 

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As you have probably noticed from my posts, I have my C300 MK III's channel #1 gain—I only record mono with one shotgun— set at position '5', with a Rode NTG-3 attached, and have found it to be quiet.  But if others, such as yourself and Ian have noticed noise, I'm beginning to wonder if my high frequency hearing acuity is amiss.  I do not hear hiss either with headphones or when editing in Resolve.  That said, I imagine that if I aggressively ride the gain beyond the midpoint I could probably induce some noise.

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Well, I'm just glad not to be alone! Thanks for the contribution, Frank. The fellow with whom I had a realtime, online compare got the same results from his mkiii as me, too. Maybe your just lucky, Ron! On another note, I'll drop you a line re: R5C.

Best, Ian

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  • 8 months later...

Hi Guys,

It wasn’t there when I first bought it I’m also having a really bad hissing sound that’s developed on my Canon C300 Mk3. Any new advice would be very welcome. I’ve shown it to some vid friends and they can’t work it out. It’s definitely not a microphone issue as it’s just as bad without a microphone. I’m beginning to think it needs to be returned. 

Cheers

Donal

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  • 1 year later...

Here is a very, very basic but easily overlooked thing.  I can't tell from the thread if your mic is direct to your camera audio port or if you are listening to the result in Resolve or another app.

Make sure your desktop OS is configured correctly.  I'm sure you have not done this but to be sure, check the desktop OS audio settings.  It is the primary cause of audio hiss in the world (I believe 😄).

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