Maybe everyone but me already has a complete understanding of the options relating to the built in mics, but I've just spent five minutes walking round and round my shiny new Pocket 2 and testing the six options (3 optioins in stereo, 3 in mono), and this is my conclusion -
Stereo, front only - designed for picking up speech from the front (the lens), with some pickup from the sides but at a reduced level, and with high frequency reduced. So if talking to the camera with cars going past, you'd hear the voice clearly at the centre and the cars would go from one side to the other, but at reduced level.
Stereo, front and back- designed for picking up speech from the front (the lens) and the back (eg an interview) , with some pickup from the sides but at a reduced level, and with high frequency reduced. So if conducting an interview with cars going past, you'd hear the two voices clearly in the centre, and the cars would go from one side to the other, but at reduced level. This mode might suit the situation where you want to provide a commentary into the back of the camera, unseen, related to what the viewer is seeing in front of the camera.
Stereo, all - designed for picking up equally from both sides and the back. This would be ideal for capturing ambient sound, but if talking to the camera you would be contending with the full volume sound of cars going past. I would recommend this for recording a musical performance, allowing a full frequency full width stereo image. If the camera was at the front of an auditorium, you would capture the sound of the performance plus a good image of the applause from the crowd behind the camera. And their coughs. This mode is also ideal for travel and walking videos as it conveys to the ears the sense of 'being there' in a very three-dimensional way.
Mono, front only - designed for picking up speech from the front (the lens), with no pickup from the sides or back. So if talking to the camera with cars going past, you'd hear the voice clearly at the centrebut you wouldn't hear much of the cars. Best for vlogging with the maximum focus on the voice, if the ambient sound is unwanted.
Mono, front and back- designed for picking up speech from the front (the lens) and the back (eg an interview) , with no pickup at the sides. So if conducting an interview with cars going past, you'd hear the two voices clearly in the centre,but the cars would be at a much lower level.
Mono, all - designed for picking up equally from both sides and the back. This would be ideal for capturing ambient sound in mono if you really wanted that, but if talking to the camera you would be contending with the full volume sound of cars going past. Personally I'd not find much use for this setting.
A couple of additional comments - the pickup of the mics in terms of front, back, left and right is defined by the position of the gimbal head, not the position of the handle (in which the mics are mounted). This means that when you are on-camera recording your pearls of wisdom for a vlog, and you have face tracking on, perhaps even with the Pocket 2 fixed on a tripod, and you have the sound set to "front", as you move around the camera not only does the gimbal head follow you (hopefully...) but also the mics follow you. Your voice will remain clear even if you go all the way round the camera. If you listen really carefully you can hear some slight changes in the stereo soundfield as the output from the four mics is processed to achieve this, but that's of no great consequence. This is, I suspect, the only implementation of such a feature on any device - audio and video following. Nice one, DJI!
"Audio follow" also works in the "all" position. As you move round the camera, the whole stereo soundfield rotates with you, so your talking will stay located in the centre of the stereo image. It's really clever.
I've also tested whether the audio zoom feature works. I couldn't hear much evidence of that in the "front" setting, but when I switched to "all", the effect is very clear. Leaving the gimbal head in a fixed position, with 4x zoom, and talking as I walked around the camera, as I came to the front (into the zoomed-in frame) I could hear a distinct increase in audio level at the front, coupled with an enhancement of higher frequencies, so my voice was much clearer at the front than at the side. This could be useful if you wanted to mount the camera on a tripod, and back away a few feet with the picture zoomed in - your voice would remain clear despite the additional distance. Or if recording something like birdsong, zooming in on the bird would enhance the audio pickup of its singing. Again, very clever, and it's remarkable that DJI have gone to such lengths over the sound. Definitely class-leading by a long way.
But one caveat - it is important to get the sound settings right for best results according to the situation. Not difficult, but before you record, you need to think it through and amend the settings as required.
See first post - I've now uploaded a comprehensive video on this subject complete with examples of all audio modes in use. (Even though I hate appearing in videos!)
DJI Stephen Posted at 11-16 20:10
Hello there. Thank you for reaching out and for creating this thread for the DJI Pocket 2. Great information and thank you for your support.
In the Mimo app i found only mono/stereo menu. I dont see the menu for front/back/all - can you tell me where it is?
Thanks
It's not in the app - at present, for some reason - you have to find it in the menus of the device itself, as described in the notes to the video I made.
fansfe82067d Posted at 11-17 22:04
It's not in the app - at present, for some reason - you have to find it in the menus of the device itself, as described in the notes to the video I made.
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