HD Camcorders and 5.1 Sound - essential?

[howardmg]

I see that the Sony SR12 records in 5.1 - whereas Canon models eg HF10 and Samsung HMX20 only record in stereo.

Wondering, from experience of those here, whether this is an important feature or more of a gimmick? I'm looking to upgrade to an HD model soon and will be playing results through a home cinema 5.1 setup so thats got me worried about going down Samsung or Canon (if can afford it) route.

Thanks...

[senu]

Not essential IMHO
Nice but may even be lost via editing
Most decent AV Amps will do a nice Doblby pro logic 2 on a stereo track

[mmace]

I'm one for future proofing and I'm an early adopter of a lot of things

I've had 5.1 at home for a LONG time and was waiting for a decent HD camera with 5.1 to try it

I got the SR10

I didn't regret it, I love the audio from it (though the rear speakers are really the same audio and the centre speaker is taken from the L & R), but it's good
if you're into 5.1 audio then you won't regret it

I use Premiere CS4 to edit my AVCHD files and the 5.1 is kept intact

[numbercruncher]

Not having 5.1 originally put me off getting the HF100, but having actually bought one, I've no regrets 'cos just the stereo separation is so negligible that I can't believe separating 5 discrete channels would be any more effective.

IMHO my surround system sounds pretty damn good on decent sources (e.g. BluRay's, DVDs), but the stereo from my HF100 lacks width. It's not at all bad and the sound is tonally quite rich, it just lacks spatial extent.

The fundamental problem is that the mics are so close together that they basically hear the same thing. Only a proper, larger directional mic has any chance of giving you a decent effect. It's a physics issue: the wavelength of speech, for example, is tens of centimetres. "Middle C" is over one metre. To reliably detect the phase difference due to direction, you need a separation which is a significant fraction of the wavelength. That's why the ".1" in 5.1 (a subwoofer) works at all: you can't tell which direction low frequencies come from, because your ears are too close together.

Of course, I haven't heard a 5.1 camcorder recording, so I could be wrong.

[chrishull3]

The 5.1 sound is a gimmick i find the slightest breeze and sound is very poor with the on board mike which is why i use my rode stereo with my SR12 which is many times better than the on board or directional mics of the same price i had one.

[J1mbo]

Gimmick says I.

Even your big Hollywood movies don't bother recording with 5.1 mics; everything is constructed in post by carefully panning effects off to different channels.

The main problem is audio perspective changes when you move the camera with the mic on. With true 5.1 (or even true stereo) this can sound really weird, although as numbercruncher points out on most camcorders your not really getting a decent enough stereo image for this to be noticeable...

Stick to a good quality directional mic.