FX1 mic/line input jack

FX1 mic input jack

In my opinion, the 1/8" minijack shown above is the only reason the FX1 is not a fully professional camera.  Of course there is a pro version, the Z1U with reliable (XLR) audio connectors, for an additional $1500 or so.  I thought the miniplug arrangement would be OK until I discovered bad audio before a gig, with no time left to debug the problem. Afterwards I tracked it down to this connector.  After poking at the 1/8" minijack socket from the interior back side it works again. At any rate, if you are considering professional work I recommend considering the Z1U instead of the FX1.

FX1 side view  FX1 audio-video jack module

By the way, there are two small surface-mount components mounted near each of the L + R mic inputs (barely visible in photo above). Using an ohmmeter, one measures less than 1 ohm, and the other is open. I suspect these parts are an inductor and capacitor, forming an L-C lowpass filter that will reduce any RF interference on the low-level audio signal coming in to the camera.


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