On 28 Dec 2001 17:17:05 -0800, krings@cs.uidaho.edu (Axel Krings) wrote:

>Hi there,
>I just received my canon elura 20 mc and noticed upon playback that
>the internal mic is picking up the sound of the motor (quite noticable).
>
>I checked newsgroups and found quite a view older postings on this
>topic, in 1999 someone even posted a sound sample of this on his web
>page (now expired). Some folks say their elura has a clean sound,
>others say that they notice the motor noise as well.
>
>I am still very unclear on "how much noise is normal".
>My old analog cam had no noticable noise at all and I am disappointed
>that the digital elura with such superior technical
>sound specs (CD quality and more :) has this noticable motor noise.
>I read that some folks suggested using an external mic, but in my case
>this defeats the very same feature I bought this camera for: size!
>
>Does anybody have any sound files out there that would give me a frame of
>reference on how much motor noise is normal?

Things are improving with the one-chip Mini-DV
camcorders - my second one, a TRV9, made so much
noise it was audible over even loud ambient noise;
later ones (PC-1, TRV11/17/30, PC100) were pretty
quiet even in a small, hard, quiet room. Check out
www.David-Ruether-Photography.com/camcorder-comparison.htm
(there are descriptions of the audio with the reviews
of each of the cameras...). The Mini-DVs have drum
rotation speeds that are much higher than those
of analogue gear - but the best of the newer ones
have good noise-cancellation...