23Mar More Bluetooth Wireless audio testing.
I’ve spent a few hours off and on over the last few nights running tests on that Bluetooth wireless audio setup and I’ve discovered two problem. Both of which are in the Bluetooth transmitter. The first is that the noise is actually coming from the transmitter. Here are some audio samples. One from my phone’s transmitter and the other from the Bluetooth Transmitter.
Bluetooth Transmitter to Bluetooth Receiver mp3 file
Phone Bluetooth Transmitter to Bluetooth Receive mp3 file
The first audio sample is the Bluetooth Transmitter to the Bluetooth Receiver, the second is my phones Bluetooth Transmitter to the Bluetooth Receiver. As you can tell by the sound bites, the cheap Bluetooth Transmitter introduces that bad sounding noise. It turns out that as the batteries discharge on the Bluetooth Transmitter the noise level gets higher and higher. Fully charged the noise is barely audible, but as the battery drains down the noise level continues to climb. There is a small amount of noise introduced by the receiver but not nearly as much as the transmitter.
The noise floor battery issue caught me by surprise. I was having trouble getting good sound the other night and before I went to bed I put the transmitter on its charger. In the morning the problem was gone, but an hour later it started to come back.
The first tests prove the concept, now I’ll just have to spend a little more on a better Bluetooth transmitter and Bluetooth Receiver pair. Hopefully I can find a combination that works better then the first try. When the new set shows up, I’ll let you know how it turns out.
Note: that the audio sample played on my phone was converted to 128 kbps mp3 format and that the number count at the end of the sample was looped 2 extra times to make it a little longer.
22Mar Closer Look at the Frio cold shoe adapter.
The Frio Cold shoe adapter is about $4 more than a traditional Cold shoe adapter, but It has a few features you might want to consider before you jump on the cheap price band wagon. When I found this odd looking cold shoe adapter online, I put up a post and ordered a few to try out. After messing around with them for a bit, I’ve decided to order a few more.
The main thing that sells me on the Frio Cold shoe adapter is the SNAP you hear when you slide your flash or monitor into the adapter. I’ve dropped my Sennheiser wireless receiver 3 or 4 times when I snugged down that red knob. You think you’ve got it tight, but the square ends up being just a little bit off and as soon as you let go, your stuff goes crashing to the ground. This finally happened to me with my Zoom H4n before I decided it might be a good idea to change out the adapters I use on high price items like my field monitor and recorder.
The size difference between the Frio Cold shoe adapter and the traditional Cold shoe adapter isn’t much and the Frio is a little bit lighter. But the lock and release really wins me over. It’s the same reason I love the manfrotto 501pl plates. When I’m sliding a high price camera onto a fluid head tripod, I want to hear that click to let me know that it wont fall off.
21Mar Turn an unbalanced mono jack into a stereo output.
Dave Knop from QuickFX pointed out to me that some of the lower price editing programs like iMovie and Windows Movie maker don’t have much in the form of audio control. This isn’t to much of a problem if you’re using the in camera microphone but can be a real hassle if you’re using an unbalanced audio source like the Audio-Technica ATR-35S Lavalier.
If your plug looks something like this, then it is unbalanced. When you plug this into the microphone input jack on your camera, the audio that you record will only playback in the left or right speaker. If you’re using a more advanced editing program like Adobe Premiere Pro, you can simply use the plugin “fill right” or “fill left” and the audio from that channel will play back in both speakers. If you are using an editing program that doesn’t have this option, don’t worry, there is a cheap hardware solution.
If you feel like doing a little bit of cable making, then you could probably dissect an old pair of ear buds and wire them up to a mono plug. Connect the largest parts together and wire the tip of the unbalanced plug to the tip and ring of the stereo plug. If that sounds like to much of a hassle, then consider an off the shelf solution.
The cheapest option I’ve seen can be found at Radio shack for $2.69, it’s called an 1/8″ Stereo Plug to 1/8″ Mono Plug Adapter. I’m not sure why Radio Shack chose to leave male and female out of the title, but it’s cheap and it works. The Radio Shack part number is 274-374, but what if you don’t live near a Radio Shack? Well then prepare to feel just a little ripped off. Amazon carries the 3.5mm Stereo Male to 3.5mm Mono Female Adapter (same as the Radio shack part) for $1.50, your probably thinking “Why is that a rip off?”. You’ll find out once you add it to your cart that the shipping charges are around $6 for something the size of a beer cap.
Either adapter will solve your problem, just remember that the shoulders on the adapter are a bit big. So make sure you have enough room on your microphone input to accommodate it.
21Mar Affordable Cowboystudio CFL lighting rig Sold out.
I’ve received a number of e-mails asking about that Cowboystudio 1200 watt (equivalent) studio light setup. Apparently it’s completely sold out and many of you are looking for an alternative. Youtube member Levene1 sent me a message with info on a lighting rig that’s the same price and pretty much the same configuration. The only difference between the Cowboystudio 1200 watt lighting setup and the PBL Photo Digital video light KIT is that the light holder moves as a single peace as apposed to two separate peaces. This shouldn’t be to big of a deal. Everything else seems to be the same. So if you’re still in the market for an Affordable CFL lighting rig this should be a good alternative.
20Mar Bluetooth test with a Lavalier
I don’t normally do two videos in one day, but I received so many request for a test using a lavalier with the Bluetooth transmitter setup that I decided to give it a try. It hadn’t accrued to me that this could be used as a lavalier setup since most of my plans focused around the stereo audio side of things.
All of the Lavalier microphones I own require power to run. So I talked to Scott over at the Frugal Film Maker blog and he recommended a quick and dirty $22 radio shack tie-clip microphone (mine was on clearance). After picking one up I cobbled together a couple of audio tests.
The first test is the Radio shack Lavalier plugged into a mono to stereo converter then into the Fiio E5 Headphone amplifier and finally into the stereo Bluetooth transmitter. The results are poor. There is a lot of noise in the audio and I wouldn’t consider it to be very usable.
The second test is the Radio shack Lavalier plugged into a mono to stereo converter then into my Zoom H1’s microphone input and finally the Zoom H1’s audio output into the stereo Bluetooth transmitter. The results are much better then the first test but still not as clean as the test results from the earlier Rode VideoMic test.
I’m not 100% sure what is causing the problem. But I have two things I’m going to look into. The first is the transmitter, since the first one showed up defective, I’m wondering if its replacement is also starting to defect. I did choose the lowest of the low Bluetooth transmitters. The second is the Radio Shack microphone that I picked up on clearance. This could be a lesson in “you get what you pay for”.
Unfortunately my wonderful neighbor spent half the day testing the glass packs on his 1970s era bronco and I was unable to get enough quiet time to sort out the problem.
You might want to spend 5 or 6 extra dollars on the branded Bluetooth models on amazon, as apposed to the lowest common denominator from china on ebay. When I get a chance I’ll sit down with my Zoom H1 and Zoom H4N and figure out if it’s the microphone or the transmitter that is causing the problem. Until then The Saga Continues.
20Mar $35 wireless Bluetooth setup, and it works great!
I’ve been waiting to post this for more then a week. The first I received was defective and I had to send it back. The seller was kind enough to cover return shipping, but the back and forth took awhile.
I finally received the working a few days ago and had a chance to run the setup through its paces. I’m very happy to say that everything works great! I was able to get clean audio transmitted over 50 feet line of site and about 20 feet through walls. Two tests of battery life showed 5 hours the first test and 3 hours 45 min second test. Not the 8 hours promised by the manual but still quit good for the price. The receiver actually ran out of power before the transmitter on the second test. I would have thought it would be the other way around.
Both the transmitter and receiver aren’t much bigger then a compact flash card so they wont add much weight to your rig and since the sends stereo audio you can get 2 channels of audio back to your camera.
The has a single male 3.5mm dongle, a usb charging port and a single silver button.
The is almost the same. The only change is that the 3.5mm dongle is female. There isn’t any volume control on either unit, so for testing I used the Fiio E5 headphone amplifier’s volume switch to adjust levels.
Since the Fiio headphone amplifier came with a few extra cables, i used those to connect the female to the camera. After doing a number of audio tests the only real problem I found is the Bluetooth Standby mode.
If the units aren’t in use for 3 mins they switch to low power mode (standby) to save battery life. The only problem with that is if you go to use them in stand by mode the first half a seconds of audio either gets chopped off or has noise in it. Once the units reestablish their connection in that first half second everything is good to go. You can hear the first word on that rode video mic test (in the video) cut off then a small burst of noise before cleaning up. This isn’t the end of the world just something to keep in mind.
The other thing of note is that if you plug these units into a computer you could destroy them. The manual has a small note saying: “please use the original charger to charge the unit” I e-mailed the seller and he pointed out that it wasn’t a good idea to plug the transmitter or receiver into a computer. This might be why my first transmitter died.
The Bluetooth transmitter and I used are the cheapest I could find, so if you’re looking for longer battery life or a better build you might want to shop around. Some of the nicer transmitters and receivers are over $100. The Bluetooth transmitter is available on Amazon
. I was only able to find the
on ebay. The Fiio E5 headphone amplifier isn’t absolutely necessary but it does offer volume control.
19Mar So I ordered a new Laptop.
After Looking over a number of great recommendations (thanks Al), I finally pulled the trigger on a Dell XPS 15 laptop. The main reason for this is price. When I got home from my last trip, there was a Dell catalog sitting on my door step with a 1 week %25 discount code on XPS 15. After looking through their site, I stumbled across a Core i7-2720QM with 8GB of ram, a NVIDIA GeForce GT540M 2GB graphics card, 640GB 7200rpm hard drive, and a 1080p High res screen. All of this in a 15 inch laptop with a 92 WHr 9-cell Battery. Before the discount code $1599 (with shipping and tax), after the discount code $1200. So my new laptop should be here by the end of the month.
There where a number of great laptops recommended, including the MSI Gaming GX660R gaming laptop, the Lenovo Ideapad Y560d, and the Sager NP8130. The MSI gaming laptop is designed to run hot and heavy since it’s a gaming laptop, but the dell won me over in price. The Lenovo Ideapad has a Radeon HD 5730 graphics card which probably wouldn’t have been that big of a deal but the price was the same as the dell. The Sager has a great price, everything I want, and extra cooling but the turn around time is at 3 month due to their popularity.
Right after I placed my order the Lenovo dropped another $200, and a week later dell announced an even lower price on a slightly lower model XPS 15. With computers, something better always comes out right after you drop the cash. Thankfully the turnaround on cameras is a little slower.
Now I just need to find something to do with all these old laptops I have laying around the house.
18Mar Okii USB Follow focus + the Sigma 30mm f1.4.
Carlos Calika wrote in:
I’m a Portuguese filmmaker, and I’m very interested in the Okii usb Follow focus. Does the Sigma 30mm f1.4 perform well with the Okii follow focus?
I’ve been meaning to test every lens in my collection with the Okii follow focus so this was a good excuse to put another lens to the test. The results are a mixed bag. After working with the Okii usb follow focus for a few months I’ve kind of soured to the idea of using it as a follow focus. The 3 step settings work well with some lenses but not with others. You can edit the source code to set the step size up for each lens, but when you’re filming this isn’t a very handy option.
I still love the control over the camera that the Okii usb follow focus gives you. But I end up bring my mechanical follow focus with me when I travel. Meaning now I have 2 peaces of gear where before I only had one. To the defense of the Okii follow focus, the noise levels in the video are in large part due to my canon 7d. If you get more then 4 feet away from the camera you probably wont notice the lens motor that much. Also there is a little bit of shake in the test. This is because I have the Okii mounted on an arm attached to the Rig and I bumped it a few times while turning the knob.
If you find the results to be what you’re looking for then the Okii usb follow focus might be a good options, if not, you might want to consider a mechanical follow focus instead. I’ve had great luck with my DFOCUS follow focus and there are a .
18Mar Haier 7″ HLT71 LCD monitor out in the wild.
George Marsh picked up the Haier 7″ HLT71 LCD monitor and was kind enough to send in a couple of pictures of the Haier monitor in action. He has the monitor mounted on top of his Canon 5d Mark II with a Juicedlink DIY107 bracket. The Haier monitor is mounted to one of those Very low price ($6.95) and he has his Juicedlink DT454 on the other side of the bracket to provided audio monitoring and a good preamp.
George also pointed out that his copy of the Haier monitor needed no rethreading. I’ve heard this repeated by a number of others. I would guess my copy may have had a defect and that no rethreading is necessary on any of the models that were built correctly. That makes the Haier 7″ monitor even more of a Bargain.
17Mar Discount adjustable friction Arm 5 pack.
If you’re trying to put together a DIY rig this adjustable friction arm set might be something handy. It’s a . $30 a peace is a pretty good deal, but what’s the catch? Well the catch is that one side is 1/4, but the other side is 5/16.
With those sizes this probably wont be handy for everyone but it might be great if you’re building a Rig from scratch.
