Synco G1 (A2) Wireless Microphone Set Practical Review

As with most of the new tech I purchase or acquire that I will be using in my YouTube Videos for either my GetFitOver40 or ReplicaAirguns YouTube channels, I generally like to do some sort of a practical review for the item. In this case I take a look at the Synco G1 (A2) Wireless Microphone Set which is a pair of wireless transmitters that pair with a single dedicated receiver allowing me to quickly and easily capture good quality audio for my YouTube Videos.

For the past couple of years my go to microphone setup for my YouTube Video was to use a generic lapel mic connected to my Samsung Galaxy Smartphone recording into an audio program. I would then send the audio file via dropbox to my computer where I would then line up the audio file with the video file in my video editing software to get a much higher quality and more clear voice recording versus what the camera mic would be able to capture.

This system has been working fairly well for me but required a somewhat cumbersome lapel cable and of course my bulky Smarphone in my pocket at all times but did allow me to be as far away from the camera as I wanted without any interference or loss of audio clarity.

After playing around with the Synco G1 (A2) Wireless Microphone System I have determined I will most likely simply be clipping the transmitter onto my shirt without the lavaliere mic plugged in and transmitting the audio into either my Samsung Smartphone or my iPad where I can then again dropbox the audio file to wherever I plan on editing the video.

This video was kind of a test to see how everything sounded in terms of the lapel mic versus the built in mic. What settings to use and how distance effected the audio signal and quality. Unfortunately the lapel mic was a bit close to my voice causing some distortion to occur but you can still hear what I am saying no problem. In the future I would place the lapel mic a bit further away from my voice lower down on my shirt or simply use the built in mic as it was not as sensitive to this distortion and seemed to handle louder volume much better than the lapel mic.

Here are some of the specifications for those that like that sort of info :)

Transmitter (TX )

• Wireless Transmission - Digital 2.4GHz
• RF Frequency Band - 2400-2483.5MHz
• Working Distance - 164ft/50m (LOS area) 98ft/30m (NLOS area)
• Latency - 12.5ms
• Mounting - Pocket Clip
• Audio Input - 1/8" / 3.5 mm TRS Mic Input
• Audio Input Level - 1V (0dBV)
• RF Output Power - ＜10mW
• Power Requirement - 3.3V-4.7V
• Battery Type - Built-in Lithium Battery
• Battery Charging Time - 1.5h
• Battery Life - 5h
• Dimensions - 52X42X16mm
• Material - Plastic
• Weight - 35g

Receiver (RX)

• Wireless Transmission - Digital 2.4GHz
• RF Frequency Band - 2400-2483.5MHz
• Approximate RF Sensitivity - -81dBm
• Working Distance - 164ft/50m (LOS area) 98ft/30m (NLOS area)
• Latency - 12.5ms
• Mounting - Pocket Clip
• Number of Audio Channels - 2
• Audio Output - 1/8” / 3.5 mm TRS Mic Output - 1/8“ / 3.5 mm TRS Headphone Output
• Gain - 0-4 Level (0 to 8dB)
• Audio Output Level - Line Out: 1V, Monitoring: 25-30mW
• Power Requirement - 3.3V-4.7V
• Battery Type - Built-in Lithium Battery, 400mAh
• Battery Charging Time - 1.5h
• Battery Life - 5h
• Dimensions - 52X42X16mm
• Material - Plastic
• Weight - 35g

Microphone

• Form Factor - Built-in/External Mic
• Sound Field - Mono
• Polar Pattern - Omnidirectional
• Frequency Response - 50Hz-20KHz
• Sensitivity - -40dB (±3 dB, re 1V/Pa at 1KHz)
• Max. Input SPL - 135dB SPL (at 1KHz)

Switching Back to Apple iPad Pro

A while back I switched from a MacBook to a Chromebook as my mobile computer and for the past 4 years I have been using an Asus C302 Touch Flip as my main mobile computer. For the most part I do all my video editing on my iMac in my office but will do some video editing on my Samsung Galaxy Android phone using a program called Action Director which gets the job done but is limited in functionality for sure.

My Asus C302 has been a good mobile computer but I was not using it much for video or photo editing. Way back in the day when the first iPad came out I purchased one but back then all they really did was simply make all the iPhone Apps looks bigger, there was very little added functionality that allowed them to do much more than an iPhone could do. Time has been really good to the iPad lineup allowing it to in many cases even replace a laptop for some people.

I am a bit of a Techy and like giving new technology a try and so after playing around with my mother in law's iPad 7th generation I decided the new iPad software would be able to do everything I needed it do do with only a few work arounds. There are several iPad options out there, the standard iPad, the iPad Air and the iPad Pro with several screen sizes to consider. After some humming and hawing I went with the iPad Pro 11 inch in a 128gb version since most of my video files would be stored on an external drive. I purchased a Logitech keyboard case with built in trackpad and it works awesome making my iPad Pro 11 inch feel just like a laptop. I don't really ever feel the need to add a mouse but I could if I wanted to.

For my video editing software I paid the $35 or so and installed LumaFusion, an amazing full featured pro video editing App that even allows me to edit 4K video on my iPad Pro almost as well if not even better in some ways than my iMac using ScreenFlow. In fact this YouTube video was edited entirely using my iPad Pro with LumaFusion!

Workout at Strength Camp Langley

I haven't posted a workout video in a while so I thought I would play around with my Insta360 One R and see how well it would do in this type of workout situation, The lighting was a bit dark in the area I was doing Walking Lunges so I did get a lot of noise with it but it worked rather well on the other side of the gym where the lighting is much better. I love the ability to manually zoom and pan the 360 video after the fact to make it look like I have my own custom video person.

In this workout at Strength Camp Langley I performed a full body workout only using 4 basic exercise consisting of 4-6 sets with rep ranges around 8-15. I started off with Walking Lunges for legs getting up to a weight of 135 pounds on the Barbell, I then did various Shoulder Raises (Front, Side, Rear) and then finished off with a Dumbbell Fly press combo for Chest. This workout took me about an hour and I burned 522 calories with an average heart rate of 140 and a max of 172. Who needs cardio!

iVUE Vista 4k Versus PivotHead Recon Camera Glasses Comparison

Yup, another Camera Video but to be fair without decent cameras and quality microphones the videos would look and sound terrible even if the content was awesome :)

Pretty sure this is the last Camera update for a while now that I have added the Insta360 One R and now the iVUE Vista 4k Camera Glasses to my arsenal of video recording gear.

I was well overdue for a new pair of Camera Glasses as my PivotHead Recon’s where 7 years old which is surprising that they held up this long and even have fared well in terms of quality compared to what is available even today for HD Camera Glasses. The main problem I had with my aging PivotHead Recon Camera Glasses was mainly battery life related, can’t record video without a good battery!

After a fair amount of online digging I found the iVUE Vista 4k Camera Glasses, I was hoping to get another pair of Pivothead Camera Glasses but it looks like they are no longer in business… Too bad! iVUE from my research looks to be a decent company with quality products and they were the only company that offered a Camera Glass that was capable of 4k and 1080p 60 frame which is what I was most interested in.

In this video I compare my iVUE Vista Versus my older PivotHead Recon Camera Glasses to see how far the tech has improved over the last 7 years our so, I was a bit surprised at how well my old PivotHead Recon Camera Glasses faired but there are some obvious improvements especially in low light and audio quality when compared to the much newer iVUE Vista 4k Camera Glasses.

The iVUE Vista Camera Glasses are capable of 4k video but only at 24 frames per second which is not smooth enough for action style shooting so I plan to record using 1080p with 60 frames per second frame rate which is what I use with my other cameras when recording video for YouTube.

Here are some of the Specifications for the iVUE Vista Camera Glasses:

• HD Video 4k 24fps / 1080p 60fps / 720p 120fps

• H.264 | MOV | 16:9

• 8MP Sony CMOS Camera

• Wide Camera Angle

• 64GB Memory

• 500mAH Battery (1hr)

• Advanced Video Stabilization

• Stereo Audio

• Time/Date Stamp

• Polarized Lenses and Clear Lenses

• IP66 Water Resistant

• Vibration Alerts

Insta360 One R 1 Inch Mod Versus Sony RX100 IV

In this YouTube Video I test out my new Insta360 One R with the 1 Inch Mod, comparing it to my Sony RX100 IV to see how they compare against each other.

It’s not really a fair comparison since my Sony RX100 IV is now 5 or 6 years old which is a long time for a digital camera but it has been really good to me and provided some really great quality video over the years. Compare that to the Insta360 One R that is about a year on the market now and you would think the clear winner would be the Insta360 One R.

On it’s own the Insta360 One R with the standard 4k lens would perform well against the Sony RX100 IV but the Sony RX100 IV has a 1 inch sensor allowing it to get the most out of each pixel and since I primarily shoot in 1080p 60 frames per second I need to get as much out of each pixel as I can.

One really great feature about the Insta360 One R is that it is modular so I can swap the 4k module out for a 5.7 k 360 module or even a 1 inch 5.3k module allowing both the Insta360 One R and the Sony RX100 IV to have that large 1 inch sensor keeping the comparison more inline with each other.

Some things to not that will make a big difference in quality and limitations for this video is that the Insta360 One R 1 Inch Mod was shot using 4k 60 fps while the Sony RX100 IV was shot using 1080p 60fps. The Insta360 One R 1 Inch Mod has a fixed focus while the Sony RX100 IV has a variable focus.

Anyway I will let you be the judge and decide which camera you like the look of the video for at least in this shooting situation.