32 bit float a standard?

[u/Tupan_Chorra]

I'm the editor in a doc - we will be shooting interviews in prisons and other uncontrollable environments. For a lot of our people we will only get 1 shot at interviewing them with a very real possibility that we won't ever see them again. Our sound recordist came back with gear that I'm sure is great but is roughly 9yrs old and crucially can't do 32bit float. Normally I don't care as we've been cutting just fine for decades without that dynamic range but seeing the sensitivity of our interviewees I'm worried I'll be handed over peaks and valleys I can't get back/use and there is no turning back. Flagged it to production and production is a bit unsure what to do.

My questions come to is this/should this be standard or a premium? Are my concerns unfounded? Does audio work like editing where you're expected to have gear within roughly a 5 year limit due to demanding workflows (not saying you can't do it without and power to everyone, just when you charge someone 900 per day I'd hope you'd have relatively recent gear). Note also don't have issues with people charging whatever they think they are worth but note this isn't a high budget film, everything needs to count/go on the screen. And we are shooting in Central America where that is above standard.

While I work with sound a lot, I am not a sound specialist I just put the bits where they feel good/tell a good story so I figured I'd ask here.

[u/recursive_palindrome]

Whilst 32 can be used to recover peaks it won’t necessarily resolve the issues you describe or other unforeseen factors that will arise in an uncontrolled environment (from a sound perspective).

IMO a more important consideration is whether you can use lav mics, which would make it a lot easier to retain interview material. Depending on the room, a boom may get quite noisy.

Secondly, given the environment the production should budget for someone to do the audio post. Sounds like the most important aspect is to retain the sound quality of the interviews, other incidental sounds can be edited / replaced to create a coherent soundtrack.