S5 II vlog audio options

[zerocool22]

Hi guys, 

I am getting a panasonic S5 II, mostly for vlogging. Would make my life so much easier vs the original s5. I currently own a sennheiser G4 wireless lav set, zoom H6 and a sennheiser mkh416 (and small rode videomic shotgun). But for vlogging and walking around, what would be the best setup? 
In the past I always recorded into the zoom H6 and synced it up in post. Just because I found the quality a bit better then recording straight into the panasonic S5 mini jack port. (maybe the zoom has better pre-amps? But now I am thinking of removing the zoom h6 out of the equation, just because it eats battery, and it is another device to handle, the easier/faster I guess)

- sennheiser g4 into the panasonic S5 II directly through mini jack?  
- get the DMW-XLR1 and rig up the s5 ii for mkh 416 use
 

Thanks!

[Kubrickian]

How about a Tascam DR10 https://tascam.com/us/product/dr-10l/top

[zerocool22]

Thanks, If i part with my sennheiser g4 that is a option indeed. (don't have a need for 2 wireless lav systems). 

I do wonder how people are doing it recording it camera on the best way possible. Syncing in post does slow it down a tiny bit. (mainly the loading/offloading of the SD cards, importing the tracks, auto syncing them, set it to stero, bypass the original sound)

[herein2020]

1 hour ago, zerocool22 said:

Thanks, If i part with my sennheiser g4 that is a option indeed. (don't have a need for 2 wireless lav systems). 

I do wonder how people are doing it recording it camera on the best way possible. Syncing in post does slow it down a tiny bit. (mainly the loading/offloading of the SD cards, importing the tracks, auto syncing them, set it to stero, bypass the original sound)

 

When I used the S5 with audio I swore by the DMW-XLR1; but that was mainly because my highest quality mics were all XLR. In your situation, I would just test out the Sennheiser straight into the mic port. The quality of the audio will mainly be affected by the lav mic more so than what port you use on the S5II. For the cost of the DMW-XLR1 you could get a pretty nice lav mic.

The trick with the mic port is to turn down the gain within the S5II to almost as low as possible, then use the Sennheiser G4 setup to bring the levels within the -6dB range. On the transmitter side set the peaks to -12dB, on the receiver side use the receiver to boost the signal until it just taps on -6dB at its peaks within the camera. That will nearly eliminate the camera's noisy pre-amps and rely on the Sennheiser which is going to be cleaner. If you are worried about clipping then turn the transmitter down to -12dB peaks as well.

Personally, I hate post synching audio so whenever possible I keep things simple. I've also found that Davinci Resolve isn't always that great at syncing audio tracks later which is an even bigger PITA when I need to do it manually. 

I am not an audio guy, in fact I hate most things audio, but I do need to record it quite often so when I do I keep it as simple as possible. Shotgun camera mounted mic whenever possible, lav mic to Sennheiser G4 whenever a lav is needed, or straight XLR wired into a MixPre6 with the stereo mix sent to the camera via Sennheiser G4. None of those setups need a post audio sync. 

Shotgun camera mounted mics into the mic port of the camera works surprisingly well if you can get close enough to the talent, as long as they face the camera, and there isn't too much background noise. I've been using them more often lately to do quick run and gun interviews for events vs handing them a mic or fiddling with a lav mic.

BTW, an absolute lifesaver for me in Davinci Resolve is the Carity Vx plugin. I actually can use my shotgun mic more often and can make it sound like a lav mic with that plugin because it cleans up the background noise so well. It has literally saved some bad audio more than a few times for me.

[Kisaha]

Just use the G4 straight to the camera and you will be fine..