DPreview Pre-Amp Shootout

[hoodlum]

 

[FranciscoB]

Wow, the sony really stands out. Good surprise with the canon.

[BTM_Pix]

My first thought was that the Sony sounded bad enough to the point of being faulty.

I've got a feeling there will be a lot of people who own that particular model running their own tests today !

[Andrew Reid]

There is however the Sony XLR-K3M XLR Adaptor Kit

Would be interesting to see if that fixes the A7 III audio hiss.

You can also add frequency cuts and other effects to clean up audio in post.

So all is not lost for Sony users but definitely the worse of the bunch!

[EphraimP]

They all suck.  😉 Get a DXA-Micro Pro or a recorder like the MixPre 3.

Actually, the only camera in the review I have experience with are the X-T3 (my daily driver). It sounds like all of them but the Sony are pretty usable. I'm definitely impressed by Canon's improvement. My 80D's preamp is useless. Still, I love the ability an external preamp gives me to XLR microphones and multiple mics (boom plus lav usually).

[Mako Sports]

7 hours ago, BTM_Pix said:

My first thought was that the Sony sounded bad enough to the point of being faulty.

I've got a feeling there will be a lot of people who own that particular model running their own tests today !

My a7iii has some noise but not as bad as that video. So clearly the a7iii didn't get the a7s preamps. I think theirs might be defective. My old A6300 had a better sounding preamp.

[Andrew Reid]

I think anybody using the internal preamps and 3.5mm jack will be recording very casual audio anyway

So does the quality even matter that much?

[Video Hummus]

2 hours ago, EphraimP said:

They all suck.  😉 Get a DXA-Micro Pro or a recorder like the MixPre 3.

You would need $1000 microphone to take advantage of it.

6 minutes ago, Andrew Reid said:

 

I think anybody using the internal preamps and 3.5mm jack will be recording very casual audio anyway

 

And for most people it’s more than good enough.

There are other questions as well as:

Delivery medium (YouTube will butcher it)

The hardware the person is listening on (90% probably crappy phone speakers or computer speakers or AirPods)

I would say every one of those cameras except the A7III had more than good enough audio.

Money better spent taking the 30 mins to learn how to clean up audio in your favorite NLE. 

[Mako Sports]

1 hour ago, Andrew Reid said:

I think anybody using the internal preamps and 3.5mm jack will be recording very casual audio anyway

So does the quality even matter that much?

Thats my thought process, if the audio is important I going to the xlr on my fs5 or use my external recorder. 

[ntblowz]

Yeah Sony's pre-amp is quite shocking

When i used a7iii to shoot pacific group dance performance i was shocked at audio quality difference to the gh5 i used a year before to shoot the same group.

They require live audio for this shoot so both was using rode videomic on top of the camera for recording, but you can tell the difference straightaway, and client ends up using gh5's audio for one of the video. 😂

[newfoundmass]

3-4 years ago Sony was second only to Panasonic when it came to preamps in these kind of cameras. But like with everything else everyone has caught up. 

With that said, for most work the A7iii will give acceptable results. For the other work an external solution is an easy to implement. 

[IronFilm]

On 3/29/2020 at 10:33 AM, EphraimP said:

They all suck.  😉 Get a DXA-Micro Pro or a recorder like the MixPre 3.

Wouldn't bother with any of those camera specific external preamps of the past in 2020, not when the Sound Devices MixPre3 is so very very very good and incredibly small and compact for such a cheap price too. (although if truly homeless levels broke, I'd still pick a Tascam DR60Dmk2 / DR70D over any purely pre amp add on)
 

On 3/29/2020 at 12:52 PM, Video Hummus said:

You would need $1000 microphone to take advantage of it.

Do you need to always use a thousand dollar lens to make the most out of a Panasonic S1H sensor??

 

[PannySVHS]

47 minutes ago, IronFilm said:

 

Do you need to always use a thousand dollar lens to make the most out of a Panasonic S1H sensor??

 

No, put a 20mm Canon FD lens on the S1 and stop dreaming of the S1H:) Would be awesome if you would do a thread about audio devices, a collection of knowledge you shared with us in several posts. Maybe a short write up, so it would not be a monster task to do so of course!:)

[Video Hummus]

7 hours ago, IronFilm said:

Do you need to always use a thousand dollar lens to make the most out of a Panasonic S1H sensor??

I think there is more to an image than to sound for most people. Why aren’t their sound people recording on 20 year old sound capturing devices like there are people shooting on lenses. 

[newfoundmass]

 

 

[Mark Romero 2]

13 hours ago, Video Hummus said:

I think there is more to an image than to sound for most people. Why aren’t their sound people recording on 20 year old sound capturing devices like there are people shooting on lenses. 

i certainly do agree to a certain extent with your original premise about needing an expensive mic for most of us to hear the difference between camera preamps and better preamps. Although I guess that putting a mediocre mic through a good preamp would be at least SOMEWHAT better than putting a mediocre mic through a bad camera preamp. 

Also, I could certainly be wrong, but don't some people use older microphones for the "character" the way filmmakers might use older lenses for their character? Probably there are some audio engineers who will bite the bullet and clean up the audio in post as long as they can use a mic that gets a certain tone they want that is otherwise hard to replicate. 

I don't know about capturing sound on 20-year-old sound devices, but I know that a lot of times people use the old Shure SM57 mics when they want a dynamic mic, and those things were first released in the '60s. I guess they are used more so for things like singing and podium lectures or podcasts though???

 

[David Bowgett]

DPReview have just posted a follow-up video focusing on the A7iii. In short, the camera they tested wasn't defective; a second camera performed exactly the same.

However... it also looks like the A7iii's audio performance can differ drastically based on the microphone that's being used. Some microphones end up sounding as bad as the initial test, but others end up in the S1H's ballpark. Not sure what's going on there - maybe Sony cheaped out on the camera's EM shielding or something?

Also, based on what Jordan says at the end of the video, it sounds like they may have unwittingly tested the Z6 under optimal circumstances, and that with other microphones the results are much, much less rosy than their initial test indicated.

[IronFilm]

On 4/1/2020 at 12:01 AM, PannySVHS said:

No, put a 20mm Canon FD lens on the S1 and stop dreaming of the S1H:) Would be awesome if you would do a thread about audio devices, a collection of knowledge you shared with us in several posts. Maybe a short write up, so it would not be a monster task to do so of course!:)

A few years ago I wrote up this overview of almost all sound recorders people on these forums might consider:
 

Perhaps time for an update though! 

Although a lot of that is still applicable. 

I'd just need to cover some massive collapses in prices of secondhand gear (for instance a Zaxcom Nomad has become VERY affordable! Probably by far the best bargain buy right now I reckon), and also cover the MixPre Gen2 / firmware upgrades which mean a big change in my opinion of my MixPres, a mention of the Zoom F8n, and the latest Zaxcom Nova / Sound Devices 8 series as well 

[heart0less]

6 hours ago, IronFilm said:

A few years ago I wrote up this overview of almost all sound recorders people on these forums might consider:
 

Perhaps time for an update though! 

Yes! An update would be awesome. 

 

I know there is a saying: give somebody an inch and they'll take a yard, but... 

Any chance to include some basic microphone selection, while you're at it?

(( :

Just bare necessities for a filmmaker / videographer - a lavalier (or two) and some hyper cardioid would do just fine, I think. 

[IronFilm]

1 hour ago, heart0less said:

Yes! An update would be awesome. 

 

I know there is a saying: give somebody an inch and they'll take a yard, but... 

Any chance to include some basic microphone selection, while you're at it?

(( :

Just bare necessities for a filmmaker / videographer - a lavalier (or two) and some hyper cardioid would do just fine, I think. 

Quick overview of recommendations (very partial list! Just three for each) for anybody looking for low budget audio gear / videographer / cameraman grade etc gear:

Wireless:
Sony UWP-D21 (or previous generation UWP-D11), Deity Connect Wireless, or secondhand Lectro 200 or 400 series. 

Hypercardioid mics for indoors:
Oktava MK-012, Audix SCX1-HC, Audio Technica AT4053B

Shotguns for outdoors:
Rode NTG3, Deity S Mic 2, Rode NTG5

 

This is the kind of gear which would be excellent for a videographer / cameraman, so audio isn't at all their primary focus, but now and then they sometimes "have to" do audio, and this will still give them acceptable results if used well. 

Or for student filmmakers, or broke/hobbyist indie filmmakers, or an aspiring semi pro just starting out, this kind of gear kit would also be an excellent starting point for them as well. 

Also suitable for professional sound mixers too, excellent back up gear on the cheap, or to supplement what they've already got.