Biologist needing help- Portable recorder with separate HD video and HQ sound inputs?

[richrips]

Hi All,

When I'm not playing bass to crowds of millions, I moonlight as a biologist. I'm currently a researcher studying Communication and Cognition in Jackdaws in Falmouth, Cornwall. We have a bit of a technical issue that someone on here may be able to solve.

I have 100 nest boxes, spread over 3 local field sites, each with a condenser microphone and HD video camera installed. The cables for each of these go down the tree in which the nestbox is fitted, and the ends are weather-proofed and hidden at the base of the tree. I currently record sound on an Olympus LS-100:

[url="http://www.olympus.co.uk/site/en/a/audio_systems/audio_recording/sound_music_recorders/ls_100/index.html"]http://www.olympus.co.uk/site/en/a/audio_systems/audio_recording/sound_music_recorders/ls_100/index.html[/url]

which is of excellent quality. Video is of lesser, but acceptable quality and is recorded by a mini HDVR

[url="http://www.rfconcepts.co.uk/mini_dvr_h720.htm"]http://www.rfconcepts.co.uk/mini_dvr_h720.htm[/url]

The trouble is that I process and analyse a LOT of this stuff and having sound and video recorded on separate devices is a pain in the A%%%. So...

Does anyone know of a portable recorder that has external inputs for audio (XLR) and video (Phono/jack/similar) inputs?

I can't be the only person to need this, but searching google is proving fruitless at the moment so I thought I'd tap in to the collective basschat brain. Any takers?

Help very much appreciated!

Rich

[url="http://www.wildcognitionresearch.com/people/richard-woods"]http://www.wildcognitionresearch.com/people/richard-woods[/url]

[krysh]

don't know if it is good, but this looks like what you want:
[url="http://www.abelcine.com/store/AJA-Ki-Pro-Mini-Ultra-Portable-Digital-CF-Recorder/#tabs"]http://www.abelcine....-Recorder/#tabs[/url]

[gjones]

[quote name='richrips' timestamp='1366895268' post='2058681']
Hi All,

When I'm not playing bass to crowds of millions, I moonlight as a biologist. I'm currently a researcher studying Communication and Cognition in Jackdaws in Falmouth, Cornwall. We have a bit of a technical issue that someone on here may be able to solve.

I have 100 nest boxes, spread over 3 local field sites, each with a condenser microphone and HD video camera installed. The cables for each of these go down the tree in which the nestbox is fitted, and the ends are weather-proofed and hidden at the base of the tree. I currently record sound on an Olympus LS-100:

[url="http://www.olympus.co.uk/site/en/a/audio_systems/audio_recording/sound_music_recorders/ls_100/index.html"]http://www.olympus.c..._100/index.html[/url]

which is of excellent quality. Video is of lesser, but acceptable quality and is recorded by a mini HDVR

[url="http://www.rfconcepts.co.uk/mini_dvr_h720.htm"]http://www.rfconcept...ni_dvr_h720.htm[/url]

The trouble is that I process and analyse a LOT of this stuff and having sound and video recorded on separate devices is a pain in the A%%%. So...

Does anyone know of a portable recorder that has external inputs for audio (XLR) and video (Phono/jack/similar) inputs?

I can't be the only person to need this, but searching google is proving fruitless at the moment so I thought I'd tap in to the collective basschat brain. Any takers?

Help very much appreciated!

Rich

[url="http://www.wildcognitionresearch.com/people/richard-woods"]http://www.wildcogni...e/richard-woods[/url]
[/quote]

A friend of mine used his Zoom HD video recorder to video my band and I was very impressed (especially since most video camers microphones are not designed to pick up bass frequencies). [url="http://www.zoom.co.jp/products/q3hd"]http://www.zoom.co.jp/products/q3hd[/url]

[richrips]

Thanks for the replies.

Michael, that looks like an amazing bit of kit. It is rather more expensive than I we can afford at the moment, but the principle is right. Something similar but less sophisticated would be ideal. My cameras output is pretty basic:

[url="http://www.handykam.com/Wired-camera-kits/Colour-CMOS-standard-resolution-camera-kit-with-20m-of-cable/flypage.tpl.html"]http://www.handykam.com/Wired-camera-kits/Colour-CMOS-standard-resolution-camera-kit-with-20m-of-cable/flypage.tpl.html[/url]

Gjones, the zoom stuff is great, my friend uses the sound recorder for pretty much every type of sound and even the built in mics are crystal clear and deal with it when things get loud or deep. Unfortunately I need something that can connect to a cable, rather than use anything with a built in camera because the mics and camera have to be left permanently in the nestboxes to reduce disturbance to the birds being studied.

Any more suggestions are welcome. Basically it has to have external inputs for both sound and video, record in a lossless/HQ sound format or a video format which doesn't compress the sound.

Just starting the fun part, where I play sounds back to the jackdaws to present normal and abnormal scenarios in order to determine what information is actually contained within their vocalisations.

This is the basic premise for anyone interested:

[url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expectancy_violations_theory"]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expectancy_violations_theory[/url]

Cheers again, I'm off to violate the preconceptions of some birds.

rich