Nikon camera fades audio in on videos

[bakonfreek]

I recently got a Nikon DSLR for Christmas. The video mode looks amazing but I can't say the same for the way the audio sounds (basically, the internal mic is crap). It's muffled and has a lot of white noise (though I'm working on fixing that with a high pass filter and noise remover). My biggest issue is the cameras tendency to fade the audio in on every clip. I don't understand why but it's on all Nikon cameras that I've used (DSLRs, point and shoots, etc.) and I don't know of a not-so-time consuming way to fix it or if there is an AVISynth script to fix it. I plan to get a separate mic for it but I need something to tide me over until I can get a few more paychecks and afford a mic that doesn't require batteries.

[smrpix]

Which camera are you using? The audio fading does not happen on my d7000.

[bakonfreek]

I'm using a D5100. The audio fade is brief but for videos that aren't for things like skits or whatever it's pretty noticeable.

[smrpix]

Interesting. I downloaded a couple of clips and there is indeed about a half-second fade-in on that camera. No indication in the manual of any way to modify it.

Only solutions I can think of are to edit. Cut off the half second (like we used to do with the flash frames on film movie cameras) An external mic is your only real solution to better quality sound --plus you can get stereo. An external mic and recorder are an even better solution but not convenient for quick home-style movies.

Quicktime Pro or MPEGStreamclip will allow you to make the changes without necessarily reencoding. Avisynth will require reencode.

edit: Or there's always the YouTube approach, replace the sound with obnoxious and inappropriate music.

[Cornucopia]

If you are serious about audio, go "double system". Start with an H2 or an H4N or similar recorder and attach your external mikes to it (boom, wireless lav, etc). Then grow from there.

When you are shooting you should ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS assume there is garbage for the first second or 2 and last second or 2. And you cut those sections out in post.

Scott