The Beachtek DXA-5DA offers a whole bunch of features you’re used to having on your video camera, but don’t have on your HDSLR, mainly the aforementioned xlr inputs and headphone jack, along with VU meters, volume knobs, and most importantly Camera Auto Gain Disabler.
The Auto Gain Control in the Canon HDSLR cameras tries to pick up as much sound as possible. This means that during silent periods, the microphone gain is cranked up to amplify as much as possible any sound there might be. As a result, you get amplified noise: ‘hissing’. That wouldn’t be as much of a problem if you could switch it off in the camera, but that you can’t. Hence the AGC disabling feature (by inserting an inaudible 20KHz tone in the left channel). Beachtek competitor JuicedLink says adding tones is evil, but most reviews are positive about it.
The BeachTek 5DA costs $330 (or 260€) at B&H!
