zoom H1 into 7D

Hi all, What I would like to do is record the sound from my H1 into the 7D. I want to keep the quality sound the H1 has, but don't want to mess around syncing......can I have my cake and eat it too?

Or is the go to record separately then sync it in later.

Whilst I am here, Any tips on things to do when I start to record both so it makes my syncing easier? I guess that explains the clapper board when they make movies?

My problem was with a video I did of some fighter jets coming into land a while back. I set the recorder and let it record constantly, then recorded short vids of the planes as they came by as there were gaps of a few minutes between aircraft. It's not like a voice sync, but I still find I have a hard time trying to work out and match everything up.

Look up Pluraleye software. I recently purchased a Tascam DR-40 (even though I didn't need it as I already have two Tascams!) simply because it came with a free Pluraleye software which is more expensive than the DR-40 itself.

Once you're rolling the camera and recorder, give a couple of good claps. It makes it easier to both manually sync and for plural eyes to sync.

ok cool, thanks both of you. The clap sounds easy enough. n00b alert, but I am assuming I do it in front of the camera? or can you just sync both sounds without having the video show the actual clap?.... Plural eyes sounds pretty powerful, but for $200 I might just see how I go doing it manually with some more practice first!

pixelbasher wrote in post #16545902
Hi all, What I would like to do is record the sound from my H1 into the 7D. I want to keep the quality sound the H1 has, but don't want to mess around syncing......can I have my cake and eat it too?

Or is the go to record separately then sync it in later.

Whilst I am here, Any tips on things to do when I start to record both so it makes my syncing easier? I guess that explains the clapper board when they make movies?

My problem was with a video I did of some fighter jets coming into land a while back. I set the recorder and let it record constantly, then recorded short vids of the planes as they came by as there were gaps of a few minutes between aircraft. It's not like a voice sync, but I still find I have a hard time trying to work out and match everything up.

You can record the audio/line out from your recorder into the mic in on the camera. I have done this a lot, using the mics and preamps from the recorder (a DR5 in my case). It is a great deal better than using the camera mics.

With an attenuated splitter you can also monitor the audio out from the recorder at the same time. You cant just use a y splitter without attenuation as the signal strength to run headphones at a reasonable level is too hot for the mic in.

Does it mess with the sound quality a lot John?

Not mess with it, the sound quality is very good. I often use the recorded sound on the camera and don't worry about the file in the recorder. It is good to have that back up though. If you were being ultra picky the recorder audio file is going to be better (and could be set to a higher sampling rate) but the camera recorded sound often seems entirely adequate.

I found it to be nowhere near the quality of the zoom to be honest, which is why I started the thread.
I had the zoom setup on a tripod in front and just below the camera, and listening to both when I got home, the difference was chalk and cheese. Especially when they would be playing with the throttles on approach. The 7D more often than not simply got louder and quieter, but the zoom picked up turbine whirs, and subtle changes in engine note. Much deeper bass too. The roar really punches the speakers over the 7D bass which I thought was muted and not clean if that makes sense. Also it seemed to pick up less outside noise than the 7D did. I have to park along a roadside, and the 7D picked the car noise much more than the zoom, the zoom was positioned a bit lower, so it probably wasn't a fair comparo to be honest. Maybe the zoom mics are more directional, don't know but definitely the road noise was much more muted or less annoying than out of the 7D. I did have the foam baffle over the zoom so that may have helped as well. And you could really notice the stereo separation as the jets flew past.

But I would much rather prefer to input to the camera and save on the syncing thing. I really struggled with it, especially as I had to factor distance to the jets, so I never really knew where the sound was supposed to be. I will pick up a cable and give it a go.

thanks for all the help, I certainly respect what is involved in making a decent video, and appreciate you guys taking time out to help.

Happy christmas all!

Do it in front if the camera, then you have a visual and audio reference.

You are perhaps misunderstanding my point - feeding the recorder into the camera produces very acceptable audio. The camera audio alone is rubbish.

John Sims wrote in post #16552140
You are perhaps misunderstanding my point - feeding the recorder into the camera produces very acceptable audio. The camera audio alone is rubbish.

sorry if I was confusing John but that was what I was wondering. I knew the camera audio is poor, but I was curious as to whether feeding the zoom input to the camera actually reduced the quality of that recording, over recording the zoom as a stand alone. only one way to find out really so I will order a cable when crazy season is over.

Thanks again.

@ mattmus4357: I'm not sure why I even asked that question, it was pretty obvious after I had written it!

pixelbasher wrote in post #16553491
sorry if I was confusing John but that was what I was wondering. I knew the camera audio is poor, but I was curious as to whether feeding the zoom input to the camera actually reduced the quality of that recording, over recording the zoom as a stand alone. only one way to find out really so I will order a cable when crazy season is over.

The on-board audio sucks because of two things, inferior mic and inferior audio preamp.

Plugging the Zoom into the 7D bypasses both issues BUT you must set the 7D to manual level and turn it all the way down (1 notch above zero) to effectively bypass the preamp.

Audio on the 7D will be compressed but unless you were recording very complex material I think you'd be hard pressed to notice the difference if you were recording uncompressed WAV to your Zoom as well.