www.supervideo.com
BLACK MAMBA2 / GS400
Welcome To MY Mamba AUDIO Page
   See Bottom of Page for Manuals & etc...  

Audio Mixing EXTREME XLR, Analog RCA, USB 2.0 & DV FireWire Cables

YES... This Puppy Has Analog to Digital Pass Through

Note that the cam accessory shoe is HOT and 
there are a number of Mamba and Pana and   
  third party items that work in conjunction.          

There is a MULTI port and it will "marry" the
  Mamba like a very sophisticated LANC port  
     to the Under Water housing, the Tripod and to
Pana's Video Editing Studio.
  
The Flash Memory is EITHER SD or MMC and       
 presently goes up to 512MB with the 1GB already   
shipping & the 2 GB announced 3rd quarter 2004.  

   512MB has already been on sale for  $29.95  & the
1GB below $99. 256MB is on sale for JUST $7.00

Zebra pattern, Color Bar Generator, Back Lighting
      and Skin Tone Feature are all included and described 
here elsewhere.  

       The Mamba performance is so good in Low Light that
  an entire web page is devoted to just that subject.

   To address the issue of Audio Fidelity and the use of
           the audio meters and XLR connectors has it's own page. 

           Yes, the DV Pro,    consumer PV-DV953 & GS70 2        
                remote control units are Exactly the same as the Mamba    
only they are completely in English!

The 4 Million Pixel Super Optical Steady Shot is 
  the best Pana has produced to date bar none.     

Edge to Edge sharpness IS assured even in Super 
Wide 16X9 wide screen format.

    Manual Controls through out the envelope is preserved.

    Head to Head face-offs against the MX5000, VX2100, DVX,
  GL-2, XL-2s, 300Y, PD170 & HC-1000 are under way as   
  soon as SOME of these cams can Ever Come To Market !  

Come here ma dahling...    Gaze into ma Leica's...


Business End of the BLACK MAMBA1 Folks!

Mamba Owner's Notes...


Below Over Head View of USA version Silver MAMBA2 Shipping Kit

Just In Case You've Not Seen MAMBA2 Up Close & Personal.... & You May Lick The Picture If That Helps !

Where ole meister is that e-mail from the professional  
sound engineer that uses XLR's and his new Mamba ?

Mamba Predecessor Above With Digital Mic + XLR

  Well my Mamba just arrived the day before yesterday & just as you        
requested I gave it a good once over... with trusty notebook in hand.     

As a professional sound recording engineer with many moons here in
      the business I will stress the AUDIO characteristics.  First off I am really   
    at a loss why Anybody at Pana would not want this top-of-the-line cam  
and especially This Much of a Quality Compact unit... in the North     
American market...  a big marketing blunder in my book.

meister you are absolutely right, the qualities of this very compact but
 Rock Solid Leica Lens camcorder are quite unbelievable and I should
        know... I have XL-1s, PD170's and the new Pana sister cam DVX100.    

  This Mamba puts them all to shame just based on it's price & Value Received.    
    One of the  few shortcomings of the old MX series is that it has no room for a     
       built in connection for XLR microphones or mixers. Most professional mics           
        and mixers and PA systems that I come into contact almost daily use balanced      
    audio and XLR connectors, On the MX to get them you normally have to           
            fork over big bucks for the professional version of this camcorder (AG-DVX100 ie)   
          at least that version is officially available in the US.        What I did in this MX was  
                  to use an after market add on like the Sign Video XLR-PRO It's small, like the Mamba 
             with dual XLR and dual 1/8” inputs. Simple twist screw the XLR unit to the Mamba  
             via the camcorder’s stereo mic jack. Once connected I hooked up to microphones   
      with both XLR and phono jacks and use the built in pair of level controls to set  
            my volume parameters. It also has other features which I will get into in a minute.  

The first thing I wanted to do was to make sure the XLR could be used 
comfortably in my situation. The XLR manual said it could be mounted 
under the camera or even
clipped on my belt, waist band or to the hand strap of the camcorder.   

                 I started with the camera and tripod mount. The XLR is small enough and            
       fits snug enough to the small area of this very compact MX and the Tripod 
     then attaches to the  bottom of the XLR and made for a secure mounting. 
         This worked fine and adapted nicely to my Bogen tripod, which is probably    
       overkill for the very compact MX.  The XLR housing is die cast aluminum 
BTW & is really solid. Absolutely no problem.   

Then I took it off the tripod to see how it felt to hand hold.  Nice, light & 
  steady. Before you say just how light, don’t worry, I weighed everything.  
  The MX without battery came in at 1 lb., 10.5 ounces. The battery added 
5.3 ounces for a total of just under 2 lbs. However the waist battery you 
  describe well at MambaAudio page makes sense here for long shoots & 
for wedding type All Day battery useage which reduces the over weight. 
        Good idea meister, too bad Sony & Canon don't take Pana notes! The XLR 
    came in at 10.1 ounces. The whole package came in at 2 lbs. However, as 
         light weight and small as it is, the XLR seemed a bit oversized when attached 
         to the MX but that's compared to using the heftier VX2100/PD170 & XL-2s. 
    The MX is a Really Compact camcorder for all that it does. This was just 
   another one of the reminders. Anyway, I found that for me, handholding 
        was better if I turned the XLR ninety degrees so that the level controls were 
       facing me at the back of the camcorder.   This is not the sleek looking way 
          to do it, but it works and for ease of operation I would recommend this tact 
     as it was just best for me. I put my palm around the XLR with my thumb 
on the back of the MX
            battery and this allowed my forefinger to easily control the wheel on the upper right corner
            of the MX that acts as the recording volume control. My preconceived notion here, BTW,  
             was that this was going to be pretty awkward, but after some use...  the opposite proved to
         be true. I really felt like I had firm control of the camcorder. Also, with my thumb on the   
      back of the battery, my hand was stretched in such a way that there was no way I was
              going to accidentally bump the level controls in the middle of a take. Still, the controls           
   were right there where I could see them and adjust them with my left hand if needed.

Next I tried clipping the XLR on my belt.  SV provides a belt clip with the XLR, which I    
  screwed into the bottom of the XLR. The clip is adjustable in that you can loosen the screw
 and rotate the metal clip to any position. This way you can hook the XLR on your belt with 
  the controls facing up or to either side.  I preferred having them face up and the unit clipped
on my left side since my right hand was tied up with the Mamba. This worked fine, but,        
personally, I preferred having the XLR married to the Mamba. I could see where the belt     
clip would be handy for particular situations, though, say when you have the camcorder on 
a jib arm or steadicam.

 Before hooking up any mics or other audio, I connected my headphones and put them on so I
could listen as I went. I also turned the recording volume on the MX all the way up using      
 the wheel on the upper right rear of the Mamba. This wheel is also used to navigate the Mamba  
  menu, and only became active as a volume control once I had gone into the menu and selected
     manual audio mode.  Since this camcorder is NOT available in the states, the menu is some what
in Japanese as all the numbers are understandable and 43mm is interpretable I only had to rely
       on the supplied English Quick Start briefly and in the beginning. The numbers for each selection in
    the menu allow you to count to the right menu selection. This seemed a little intimidating at first, 
    but really pretty easy after you get used to it. Also, when the audio level readings start to appear 
      on the flip out screen, you know you’re in the right place. Once you master these kind of CLUES
      & CUES, you feel like you’ve pretty much beat the system (yes, you really can use the Mamba   
that everyone in Japan likes, even though it is not officially available in this “market”).         

Owners Note.... 
the headphone socket is used both for headphones and for the Teeny Tiny Pen Wired 
                remote control, so to use Both: headphones to monitor sound and use the Wired Remote            
 like the meister says as a Remote Control Arm at the same time, you will have to go to  
   your local Radio Shack and with Cam, wired remote and Head phone in hand get a Jack 
Splitter...

I had four microphones handy, which I used to try out the XLR.  One used an 1/8”     
connector, the Sennheiser MKE30 shotgun microphone. This microphone is designed 
 to be mounted on board a camcorder, and thus isn’t meant to be used with a long mic 
cable, so no balanced audio or associated XLR connectors are required. The other 3  
were all XLR microphones: a no brand name visible condenser mic, typical of those   
 you see use handheld by the news crew, and 2 Audio Technica shotgun microphones, 
models ATR55 and AT835B.

I connected the condenser mic to the XLR-PRO to get things going. I plugged it into 
the channel 1 XLR input & set the stereo/mono switch to stereo. This records audio 
 from the mic to the left channel of the two Mamba audio channels. I would ordinarily 
   do this if using two mics, recording one on each channel, so I could later mix the tracks 
in post.  It also can be set to the mono position and the mic record on both channels. 

   According to the XLR-PRO manual, I also needed to select between grounding options 
to get the quietest operation, using the two position toggle labeled g1, g2. Set to g2, I 
     could hear some background trash. Set to G1, the audio was extremely clean. on G1       
seemed to be the best ground to use with the Mamba. 

    The audio level on the condenser mic going through the XLR was fine. The level pretty 
     much matched the level I got plugging directly into the Mamba, using my custom XLR 
    to 1/8” adapter cable. If you’re doing this test, by the way, be careful, because you can 
      get fooled if you end up on two channels in one connection and only on one in the other. 
   Two channels going into your headphones, one in each ear, will sound louder than one 
   channel in one ear, even though the level is the same. My custom adapter cable puts the 
 audio on both channels, so when doing this comparison test, I switched the XLR into 
mono mode.

The Sennheiser MKE300 shotgun microphone worked fine going into the XLR 1/8” 
  input. The levels were fine, pretty much matching levels going straight to the Mamba. 
This is an excellent camcorder mount mic, by the way, and has better directionality  
  than many longer shotgun microphones I’ve tried. It picks up almost no sound from 
the rear, which is really a great feature for an onboard microphone. It slides into the 
     shoe on top of the Mamba & plugs into the 1/8” mic jack on the Mamba or on the XLR.

        Both Audio Technica microphones worked going into the XLR jacks on the XLR-PRO, 
 again with the levels pretty much matched to those I got using my adapter cable.      

I also listened with the headphones with the XLR hooked into the Mamba, but      
without any microphone connected. It was extremely quiet, so quiet that all I could 
    hear was hiss. When the only thing you can hear, when listening very closely, is some 
   low level hiss, you’re listening to very clean audio. The XLR was very, VERY clean !

My Later Observations meister...
I put the XLR-PRO and Mamba to everyday use.  To get the best results with the 
XLR, I found it was best to turn the XLR level controls all the way up and use the  
Mamba wheel control to set the final level. 
 If two mics didn’t match in level, of course, I turned the quietest mic all the way up 
        & adjusted the louder mic to match. This produced better results and also made it easier 
to adjust overall level while handholding.

 An exception to this approach, however, points out one of the other important uses of the XLR  
When I was recording something really loud, like a drummer on a close mic, I found that that I   
   couldn’t turn the volume level on the Mamba low enough to get a good recording. This is really  
frustrating. With the XLR, I just set the Mamba volume low and reduced it further using the     
controls on the XLR. When setting volume down to the lower range of the XLR controls, the   
adjustment got pretty tricky, but with due diligence I could get the levels I needed.

 As always, I was also impressed with the audio recording quality I got with the MX, as well 
as with the entire camcorder. I don’t think there is camcorder this size that can touch the quality 
of this little three chip wonder. Fortunately there's MXSource folks around to bring us the likes  
of the MX & XLR. I highly recommend them both.    What a joy chuckmeister... you rule !
Some observations from your Van-Meister


What NLE's support the MX?
. Do you have a recommendation for your favorite NLE?

Adobe Premiere 6.0 has specific support via any laptop with 
IEE1394 that is recognized in Windows 2000. In the capture 
settings it has specific Panasonic MX settings that work   
      perfectly with my MX on both my Dell Inspiron 8000 laptop .. 
        & with the rather excellent and amazingly cheap Pyro DV Pro card.

     Windows 2000 is seriously good especially with Service Pack 2 
for use with Adobe Premiere PRO 6.5.
I use In-Sync's Speed Razor in long programs ... 
as it allows literally hours of programming length ...     
 if you have the hard drive space.

However .. it IS expensive, and is generally considered PRO ... 
whereas Premiere is offered free with the Pyro DV card ..          
and is as good for most things ... particularly as it uses DirectX  
features fully...  both Audio and Video.

Premiere also comes bundled with useful things like 'auto'    
background music that tailors itself to your program material 
on video.

Rather neat for spicing up the odd wedding video .. 
or family birthday party.
Best wishes your koor-meisterUK

Kauai Wedding Mamba

 Hi CM .. interestingly .. I have just finished playing with some Frame  
Mode stuff on my Mamba ... testing the view ability of it in both 4:3   
  & 16:9 'cinema' mode. Shot some live action .. and yes the viewfinder  
     seems to show a VERY jerky effect on motion or panning. This doesn't  
show up the same on replay to my Widescreen Sony 32" TV though. 
     I wonder if it is just a viewfinder effect caused by the refresh rate of the 
viewfinder itself?

   Inevitably .. the 25 fps WILL reduce the ability to capture fast motion ..
     the ability to pan quickly .. for the same reason .. the picture information 
 has changed considerably in 1/25th of a second .. .twice as much as in
1/50th of a second .. so the blurring effect is seen .. just as in film.      
One of my pet hates is the use of fast pans in film .... your eyes try to 
  follow .. but you get bamboozled by lack of information.   

    The real way to get a nice film effect .. is using frame blur & interpolation 
    in a DV edit suite .. then you get a more film-like 'blend' between frames. 
However .. that luxury is only an after processing gizmo.
Not available in ANY camera.

  Anyway .. back to the problem .. I think it's mainly an aliasing thing with
    the viewfinder scan rate ... just check it on a TV screen and see if it looks
problematical.   Best wishes.... your koor-meisterUK

Kauai Wedding Mamba Cassette Eject & S-Video

BLACK MAMBA2
New Owner's Tips
Question mister meister... is there ANY way you
can get the View Finder and the View Screen to
come on at the SAME Time?   Sure !!

Go to Menu, select LCD/EVF and then select
EVF On/Auto then select  "On"       Done!  

First THREE things I would like to recommend to all new Mambaowners
and users would be:
                        1.  Contact Pana National USA Parts Center & order an English PV-GS400                          
Remote Control, great back up, now you can see what you're doing 
       and it will make going through menu's and recording operation easier. 
 2.  You can also order while you are at it the USA version of the Pana            
                  Video Editing kit which has a special cable to connect Mamba to any computer   
                  but more valuable... a CD with USA software for USA Windows all in English!  
         3.   Down load and even print all these tips, tricks, owner's feed backs, Mamba            
            questions and even manuals and drivers that are on my many Mamba pages. 
More on this below.

Kauai Wedding Mamba View from On High !
.
Mr. meister... please tell me how to get my
  DV camcorder to get recognized by my new
computer so I can edit my Videos...
Hi Colin...
                     our chuckmeister has asked me if I can help ..YOUR Laptop & camcorder            
I have not had experience on .. so I can only offer 'general' advice for 
   MOST brand Laptops, Notebooks, Work Stations and Canon, Pana & 
Sony DV cams...     
But, Usually the problem with 'recognizing' the cam falls into 3 areas.

    1.    The operating system drivers are incorrectly installed...        

   a) With anything earlier than Windows 98 Second Edition .. 
       you'll have REAL problems. With Win98SE Windows     
     Millennium and Windows 2K, the latest FireWire port  
drivers need to be installed ... available from the    
      Microsoft website download area as 'dx80dba.exe' ... 
and dx81eng.exe (dx80nteng.exe for 2k).
    The former deals with the FireWire port... latter with 
Direct X 8.1 which I recommend upgrading to.      

      b) Some DV capture cards use the TI driver for the interface. 
     This can cause problems with Windows and capture 
       device recognition. Go to your control panel, settings, 
  system, hardware, and see if the capture IEE1394 
    DV device has the TI drivers installed. Try changing 
them to the Microsoft driver.

2. The camera has a DV out feature only.. which can cause some 
problems with video edit software's ability to 'see
           the camera as a 'VCR' that it can control and record to. 
       Also .. some cameras have the ability to disable their 
     DV out (my MX has this) in the setup menu on 
  the camera. Please check that DV out is enabled.

3. The video edit software supplied with the card does not have full
compatibility with the version of Windows that you are using. 

I have tried many software edit packages, from SpeedRazor 
 Adobe Premiere Pro 6.5, 
Sonic Foundry's Video Factory 2.0 & Vegas Video 3.0           

Of all of them, I found the Vegas Video 3.0 to be the most amazing .. 

It allows DV playback via your camera from the timeline (Premiere  
               does too .. but is more $) & loads off virtually real-time FX & wipes.                 
      This does depend on your computer. chuckmeister's all work beautiful !

I DO recommend a Pentium III or equivalent of at least 1GHz for trouble
  free editing. anything slower may give you problems. At least 256MB      
 RAM .. ( it's cheap nowadays) .. and UDMA capable motherboard and  
disk drives in order to get fast transfer to video.

OK Colin?   OK, Mahalo from your koor-meister ......

Kauai Wedding Mamba on Selector

Need to read some English markings? Here's more In Your 
Face,  Up-close and Very Personal    H U G E    images...

Some more Mamba Super-Sized Photo's...

This Mamba is covered in English, 

Zee meister's MX Menu Cheat Sheet

 Ok, as promised...  here's my little Color         
Pocket guide to the 4 Playback & 8 Record 
      menu screens MX e-mail!   

TIP OF THE DAY...
 You can get around real easy if you have to go 
along with your MX... a complete 31 button      
exact replica of the WireLess Remote only it  
is in USA English.  


  You can also order the software editing package 
  for the PV-GS400 as that too is all in English and
would have been the one included if there were
  a USA NTSC MX model available. This will allow
    you to hook up an MX to your US computer and    
US Software.r and your 
computer to take control of your MX & start 

  Kauai Bride w/ 9 hour battery  
  Waist Battery & Camera Action case.....   
 
Here's a typical e-mail with a typical Mamba owner's reply...

Chuckmeister to learn more about the Mamba  I am planning on buying, I'm 
concerned about the Japanese both on the outside of the cam and & the 
menu's inside the LCD viewfinder & screen. I've been told by people on 
the internet all markings on the out side case are Japanese. But you say 
that ain't necessarily so and that a USA Remote can help even more. Dave
    
Hi Dave & Aloha my chuckmeister: I had my Mamba for over half a year now, 
boy time flies! The meister has asked me to comment on my experience with 
the above. Well I have the Japanese Mamba & using the English manual provided 
with the MX series camcorders and the menu screen shots provided by the SV 
web site, I had no trouble operating, setting up & using the cam. Furthermore, 
I printed out the huge picture of the English labels on both sides of the Mamba
as well as the Remote Control & used a label maker to place English labels 
on the unit. This was quick and easy and cheap...
However, for most of the functionality, you probably don't even need those     
or in a short time you will not even need to refer to them. It just becomes habit. 
Also, as per chuckmeister's suggestion, I purchased the Pana Mamba1 and it is
also OK) 31 button remote control from Panasonic National Service Center; .
this is an exact copy of the Japanese version packed with the Mamba and it 
helps a lot since most of the functions can be accessed from THIS remote.
I was concerned about the same things as you prior to purchase but meister  
assured me this stuff is a no brainer and he was 100 % correct.
I'm Very happy with my Black Mamba especially all the valuable accessories
that comes with the system and you can not find anywhere.  I still  marvel at 
Panasonic USA's stupidity in not bringing this extraordinary unit to the U.S in
tact and Especially IN BLACK !  
OK Dave?   Sincerely Walt

chuckmeister's Mamba
Carry On PorterCase

  This is a Meister Go-anywhere
   Roll-Aboard System that will    
      hold 6 MX units, 3 U W systems
          or my whole Mamba Cyber Studio!
      e-mail me for Contact & Price   


        


more to follow... For Owner's Manuals PAL & USA, Brochures, Slicks...  
http://www.supervideo.com/M2PasteUP.htm
 

Is the Mamba2 too small and too compact?   
Duh...  Can a car be too fast or a girl too pretty?

Thought So...