EOS R with Shure VP83F mic

[greggp]

I recently purchase the Shure VP83F shotgun mic to use with my EOS R. The VP83F can also record to an internal microSD card at a higher resolution than the EOS R's preamp (the camera records at 16-bit 48 KHz and the VP83F records to its microSD card at 24-bit 48 kHz).

I'm relatively new to video and this is the first external mic I've used with my camera.

When you attach the mic to the camera's mic-in connection, does the camera's recording level control the mic level, or is it a combination of the camera's recording level and the VP83F's mic gain setting? If it is a combination of the camera's recording level and the VP83F's mic gain, is it better to set the camera's recording level low and the VP83F a little higher to try to get the audio peaks around -6 dB?

The VP83 has a camera out setting that corresponds to the camera's preamp sensitivity. The options are low, med, or high. So I assume if the EOS R's preamp is very sensitive, then the mic's camera out setting should be high. Does that sound right?

I'll probably just use the camera's internal mic while simultaneously record using the VP83F (to the microSD card) and then sync the audio within DaVinci Resolve in post. That way I'll get the highest quality audio. Is this a good strategy? Also the auto-sync in Resolve is a little tricky. It's too bad there isn't an easy way to set the record button on the mic at about the same time as you set record on the camera. Since the duration of the camera's A/V and the mic's audio are different, the auto-sync feature doesn't work as well as it would if the durations were closely matched.

Thanks in advance for your help/advice!

-Gregg

[Waddizzle]

If you do not have a copy of the camera's full User Manual, then I suggest that you visit Canon Support product page for your camera model.  It is the same page where you can download software for the camera.

https://www.usa.canon.com/internet/portal/us/home/support/details/cameras/eos-dslr-and-mirrorless-ca... 

[greggp]

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@Waddizzle wrote:

If you do not have a copy of the camera's full User Manual, then I suggest that you visit Canon Support product page for your camera model.  It is the same page where you can download software for the camera.

https://www.usa.canon.com/internet/portal/us/home/support/details/cameras/eos-dslr-and-mirrorless-ca... 

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I appreciate you taking the time to respond but a polite version of RTFM isn't quite what I was looking for. The details of the use of an external mic aren't explained very well in the manual and the experience of other users with a similar setup (EOS R with shotgun mic) would be helpful.

[Waddizzle]

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@greggp wrote:

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@Waddizzle wrote:

If you do not have a copy of the camera's full User Manual, then I suggest that you visit Canon Support product page for your camera model.  It is the same page where you can download software for the camera.

https://www.usa.canon.com/internet/portal/us/home/support/details/cameras/eos-dslr-and-mirrorless-ca... 

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I appreciate you taking the time to respond but a polite version of RTFM isn't quite what I was looking for. The details of the use of an external mic aren't explained very well in the manual and the experience of other users with a similar setup (EOS R with shotgun mic) would be helpful.

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"When you attach the mic to the camera's mic-in connection, does the camera's recording level control the mic level, or is it a combination of the camera's recording level and the VP83F's mic gain setting? If it is a combination of the camera's recording level and the VP83F's mic gain, is it better to set the camera's recording level low and the VP83F a little higher to try to get the audio peaks around -6 dB?

The VP83 has a camera out setting that corresponds to the camera's preamp sensitivity. The options are low, med, or high. So I assume if the EOS R's preamp is very sensitive, then the mic's camera out setting should be high. Does that sound right?"

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My mistake and you have my apologies.  Your only questions were in regards on how to use the Shure microphone. .  The camera is pretty simple,  Just plug it in, and try it.  Experiment.

[greggp]

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@Waddizzle wrote:

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My mistake and you have my apologies.  Your only questions were in regards on how to use the Shure microphone. .  The camera is pretty simple,  Just plug it in, and try it.  Experiment.

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No problem. One of the reasons I am struggling with this is because I spent yesterday testing this camera/mic combo and made some glaring mistakes. I shot a bunch of clips with different settings so I could compare the results. I copied the MP4s off my SD card and the audio WAVs from the VP83's microSD card and loaded them up in DaVinci Resolve. I was surprised when I discovered that the audio levels of some clips were just blown out. When the mic was connected to the EOS R to replace the camera's mic, the audio level was totally clipping. Since you can simultaneously record audio to the mic's microSD, I also had that version of the same clip. The audio of the same clip recorded to the microSD was perfect. So the levels for the VP83F were probably correct and the levels for the sound recording levels for the camera were too high. However, when I looked at the meters on the camera, they were peaking about midway between 12 and 0. So I'm trying to figure out what I did wrong. Thus the original post of this thread.

I think it might have something to do with the input sensitivity of the EOS R's mic preamp. I've read somewhere that they are pretty sensitive but I can't find that info after searching quite a bit. I've also read that the mic preamps in the Canon EOS cameras are pretty poor but that's a whole other discussion.

[Waddizzle]

BTW, do you know what a video slate is?

The clapper on top of it is used to synchronize audio.  It creates a nice sharp spike in the audio track.

[greggp]

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@Waddizzle wrote:

BTW, do you know what a video slate is?

The clapper on top of it is used to synchronize audio.  It creates a nice sharp spike in the audio track.

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Yup. Simply clapping your hands (once) works as well but I've watched videos that show, at least with DaVinci Resolve, an audio feature to get more accurate and faster sync by matching the waveforms of the audio from the camera with the audio from an external mic. You can also use timecode to sync but in my situation I still haven't figured out how to set that up. 

After digging into the info (including my EOS R user manual) about timecode, I've learned that I can set a timecode with my camera but my Shure VP83F doesn't have the timecode feature.