Dimage Z2 movie mode sound lag

[tleveque]

trueno92 wrote:

Everything Goes wrote:

this works for video playback even when the file is copied to computer?:idea:



or does this actually change something in the record mode as well? :?

This do not work on the Z2. Mine was always set to NTSC. I tried both mode. It is alway the same problem.

Thierry

[kathmandu]

Hi

Finally got round to sending a complaint to Minolta about the sound lag....this is what they sent back :-

........................"In response to your question, the sound and image of movie clips can become out of sync due to the compression in camera and re-expansion of the file by your PC.

The problem can be more pronounced when recording at 30fps as there is
twice as much data being recorded per second.

This does not constitute a fault.

If you require further assistance please contact this service at a time
when you can use the product and computer and they will talk you through
the correct process or assist you to solve the particular problem that you
have."...............................



THIS DOES NOT CONSTITUTE A FAULT.............yeah right............I am goingto take mine back to the friendly local shop that I bought it from, they take faulty goods back within the 1st year, rather than having to send them to the manufacturer. Be interesting to see what Konica tell them.



Haven't tried that PAL NTSC (?) switch yet, haven't used camera for a while, so hope that maybe works, can't see if it does why KONICA don't advise this ?!

Lizzy

[Jones]

hi everybody,

i also have the audio lag with my z2, i bought just 2 days ago. the advice to switch from pal to ntsc didn't work out for me, either. my firmware version is 1.03!

it appears to me that this problem is not going to be fixed by minolta at all. and i don't see to convert my videos to .avi. why should i put effort in others' FAULTS?

in exception of thisaudio-video lag,ilovemy camera already. but i'll still send it back to the shop where i've bought it - grievingly!

[Jones]

irecently tested the minolta f100, which my brother owns. it has the same sound lag. it seems like it has something to do with the QT.

[wordsmith]

I hope someone has really nailed this down in terms of software fixes - I don't mind a little extra time spent "authoring" via avi and divx if that is what it takes. Does anyone out there have the definitive answer to this?

Sorry about my previous post (since deleted). It obviously isn't PAL versus NTSC, judging from the other responses.

[wordsmith]

Jones wrote:

in exception of thisaudio-video lag,ilovemy camera already. but i'll still send it back to the shop where i've bought it - grievingly!

I hope it isn't too late to repent. I just got my new Z2 with 1.03 firmware and the MOV files do not run well on my computer (QT is buggered for some reason).

I do have Ulead Video Studio 7 however (it came with my capture card), and I loaded three three and a half minute videos into the time line with no problem, added some fades and disolves just for fun and burned a DVD RW to see how it turned out.

The main thing is that Ulead software accepts the QT format quite readily (no conversion to AVI in between) and the clip length was about what my standard Sandisk 256 meg card will take before the camera memory buffer gives up. I could not detect any audio lag at this significant3+ minutes time frame using 640 by 480 at 30 fps (NTSC playback). AVI is only a "wrapper" for MPEG anyway, so good software should take you to the core video without the intermediate AVI format.

If you try and run continuously on a bigger (1gig?) card, it might get out of synch, but it isn't good movie making to film such long segments under nomal circumstances. Try stopping filming after every couple ofminutes, or at a natural break in the action. I think when you join the clips together using a good authoring program, you will be happy with the results. Mine are really smooth, good sound, and play back nicely on the TV through my Toshiba DVD.

Ulead software is not expensive, but I think there may even be some freeware out there (VirtualDub?) Try searching on DVDRHelp.com. (Didn't get far with Video Impressions - it is kind of basic, with no burning capability at the end of your project, that I could detect)

Good luck!

[shnozz]

Does anyone know if this lag problem has been resolved with the Z20?



I have got a very good price on a Z2, and with the 10x optical zoom it is a better buy than the Z20, but with the lag problem I am thinking a Z20 could be a better bet, despite its higher price and less zoom

[nokker]

I have a Dimage A200 and has got the sameproblem with movie sound. My problem is not just the sound lag, but the overall poor sound quality also!

Almost all of my movie has the same problem:

-Noticable sound lag
-Big noise level
-CLICKS and DISTORTION

I have an example movie that demostrates all of the problems:
http://www.megalith.hu/PICT0071.MOV

(This MOV file is 6MB!)

I hope Minolta will improve the movie sound all of their camera...

[ArchP]

I followed the comments of Tinsnail about the audio lag with the Z2. I downloadedhis larger clip and, yes, the audio is screwed up. Tinsmail, one thing you are right about, the comments on this forum are being well-spidered by the search engines, in particular by Google. The Z2 was one of two cameras I had sort of narrowed in on and, yes, I did do an advanced Googlesearch looking for sample clips and your comments on this forumwere the first hit. As a result I will NOT be buying a Z2 now. I am wondering if Minolta-Konica are aware of thehigheconomic costforums like thiscould becausing them. It's my guess that they are losing a lot of potential sales on their Z series cameras as a result of thevideo problems that are out in the open now.By the same token (I hadn't thought of it at the time) but positive comments (such asmy positive comments about the Fuji E550 a day or two ago) could be giving the companies more positive advertising value than if they spent millions on their own. Companies would bevery wise, I think, to offer consumers likeyourselffull refundson the first complaintregardlessit they think they'reat fault or not. Not to confuse the issue but I'm having other problems with video clips downloaded from Steve's pages from various cameras. They play well the first few times, then they start to get very jerky. Could it be that there are inherent problems and/orcomputer compatibility issueswithALLthose 640 by 480 at 30 fps clips that are saved from memory cards??

[wordsmith]

One thing that fascinates me about this whole debate is that people seem to think that they are buying a movie camera rather than a good still camera that just happens to offer video clips as a bonus. I suggested in an earlier post that part of this problem probably has to do with overly lengthy filming on a continuous basis. I made a perfectly acceptable movie of our Christmas gift exchange from clips that each lasted less than two minutes. It is neither jerky nor noticeably out of synch.

My son falls into the same trap when filming my granddaughter - he lets the camera run and run and run until eventually it gets really boring (and believe me, I love the dear soul). See how the pros stitch together several short shots from different camera angles. Either way, 30 fps is NOT 29.97 fps, so if you let the shot drag on long enough, you will eventually get a problem in any shot that is converted to theNTSC standard for TV video, IMHO.

Stick to taking good creative stills, and save the movie mode for taking augmenting shots of moving subjects (streams, swing bridges, sail boats etc.) not for creating home movies with lip synch accuracy.

Meanwhile, I don't think the still camera manufacturers are going to lose any sleep over how many of you decide to buy a different model, when they are targeting a primary market of avid still photographers like myself.