On Sat, 16 Mar 2002 01:26:03 GMT, dulmage@visi.com (Doug Dulmage) wrote:
>In article <9742f3f0.0203140812.46d59ef8@posting.google.com>,
garak@garak.dyndns.org (Garak Doyle) wrote:
>>Why don't they put audio meters, trim, and XLR connectors on consumer
>>cameras and entry level pro/proconsumer cameras?

>Personally, it's been my experience that even professional "shooters", etc.
>can't ever give you a good overview of the difference between balanced and
>unbalance lines, why use 600ohm over a high impedance line, etc.
>That's not to say there aren't folks that don't know that stuff, but they are
>far and few between as they don't teach that stuff at "video school". I
>learned it the hardway from a Navy communcations instructor that was
>hired to come into a professional company, and I mean very professional
>as we built all the control rooms for most of the networks and hundreds of
>private recording schools to teach us the stuff that we thought we new and
>really didn't have a clue about.
> Thinking back on the 5 years I spent on the road mixing live sound
>and building my own 50kw sound system, I wish I would have met this man
>before then because I'm embarrased now as to how many mistakes I made
>on my own "professional" sound system which I now relize was a bit of
>crap, but my clients thought I knew what I was doing. So, even professionals
>don't always know why this stuff is there, so why in the world would somebody
>like Sony that does build broadcast quality gear want to put professional
>features on consumer gear when a lot of us "pro's" don't even get it.
> And apologies to those that do know what they're doing, but I have had
>too many guys that are supposed to be "experts" spout the most silly
>reasonings for how stuff is supposed to work that I take nothing for granted
>until I learn it for myself.

As BF says, "well-put"...! ;-)
Even manufacturers of "high end" audiomania-type gear
often make design mistakes, especially in grounding...
As for the premise of the original poster, I disagree
to the extent that what the "average-good" 3-chip
camcorder Mini-DV camcorder offers in terms of audio
circuit quality and features is quite good enough for
producing high-quality ***video*** sound tracks.
The standards for this need not be as high as for
highest-quality ***audio-only*** recording, and with
a little knowledge about how to optimize results,
audio tracks recorded with top-end-consumer/"prosumer"
camcorders can be excellent for the purpose of
accompanying the visuals. They can even (with some
processing) be good enough to offer as audio-only
recordings, as I have done with some music recordings...
Admittedly, the job of making top-quality audio
recordings for video is made easier with top-quality
audio gear, but somewhat lesser gear, used with care,
can still easily be used for making good audio
recordings, though this may take a bit more
experience...