http://www.amateurphotographer.co.uk 51Ataglance
● Stereo audio recorder
● Lossless, efficient
FLAC-format recording
● Triple-microphone design
● Kit includes windshield,
audio cable and hotshoe
mountWITHmostnewcamerasnowoffering4Krecording,
there’sneverbeenabettertimetogetintovideo.But
you’llfindthatgettinghighqualitysoundishalfthe
battle,andmostcamerasaren’twellequippedtodoso.
Olympushasasproudahistorywithaudiorecordingasit
doeswithmakingcameras,andit’sattemptingtomarry
togetherthesetwoareasofexpertise.Herewe’re
lookingatitstop-of-the-rangeLS-P4Videographer
Kit,whichaddsacamerahot-shoemount,ashort
audioconnectorcableandafurrywindshield,allfora
£50premiumovertherecorderalone.
TheLS-P4isnotableforitsarrayofhigh-end
features.ItsTresmicdesignpromisestop-quality
sound,withabroadfrequencyresponsecourtesyofa
third,centralcapsule,alongwithstereosoundstaging
that’szoomablefromwideangletodirectional.Files
canberecordedatupto96kHz/24-bitqualityinthe
space-efficientlosslessFLACformat,withWAVand
MP3formatsalsoavailable.Built-inBluetoothallows
connectiontowirelessheadphonesorspeakers,or
remotecontrolfromanAndroidphone.
Youcanusetherecorderinseveralways.Most
simply,itcanbemountedontothehotshoe,
anditsmicoutputfedintothecamera.
Oryoucanuseittorecordthe
soundtrackdirectly,foradditionto
yourvideoinpost-production.
Finally,youcanplugalavalierlapel
microphoneintotherecorder,asa
substituteforusingawirelessmic.
TheLS-P4iscompact,beautifully
madeandprettyeasytouse.Itsbuilt-in
microphoneprovidesexcellentqualitywith
speechandambientsounds,andthewindshield
doesagreatjob.However,there’snointegration
withthecamera,evenwithOlympus’sflagshipOM-D
E-M1MarkIII.Youhavetostartrecordingmanually,
andthensyncthesoundtrackbysuchbasicmeansas
clappingtwicerightatthestart.Thesuppliedhotshoe
mountisterrible,too:notonlydoesitmakethedevice
overhangthecamera’sbackbyabout5cm,butitalso
transmits distracting operational noises into the
recorder. You’ll need to replace it with a shock mount.Ve r d i c t
The LS-P4 is an excellent audio recorder that will
almost certainly capture much higher quality sound
than your camera. It’s just a shame that there’s so little
ALL PRICES ARE APPROXIMATE STREET PRICESintegration between the camera and recorder.
Foron-camerawork,usinga shock
mount is essential to minimise the
transmission of operational noises,
such as the clicking of AF motors
and the hum of image stabilisation.
Olympus will sell you its SM-2
mount for £44.99, but I used the
much cheaper, yet identical-looking
Movo SMM5 instead.SHOCK MOUNT
Olympus LS-P4
Videographer Kit
Andy Westlake tests a high-quality
audio recording kit for video
● £199 ● http://www.olympus.co.uk
Memory
TheLS-P4boasts8GB
ofbuilt-inmemory,which
canbeexpandedusinga
MicroSDcardupto
32GBin capacity.Rechargeable
TheincludedAAA-size
NiMHbatterypromises 39
hoursofrecording,andis
rechargedbypluggingthe
recorderintoa USB
powersupply.Built-in
USB
A retractablefull-size
USBconnectorallowsthe
devicetobeplugged
directlyintoa computer
fortransferring
files.Mountpoint
Thedevicehasa tiny5mm
(^3 ⁄ 16 in)socketin itsbase,with
anadaptersuppliedforthe
standard^1 ⁄ 4 in tripodthread.
It’salla bitclunky.ACCESSORIES Testbench
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