# microphone



## awinphoto (May 10, 2012)

Okay guys... dont know if this has been posted but here it goes.. I'm not an indie film maker, I have no ambitions on making anything fancy or do anything over the top, but what i'm looking for is a good quality low cost mic system, whether it be a hot shoe mic, or something else. The cheaper mics, including the onboard mic, always seems to have a slight hiss... You can tune that down but then you tune down the overall volume as well (5d)... I want a mic that gives ok audio with little to no hiss, but one that wont break the bank. I know there are the cheapie $30 variety on ebay and also know they get into the thousands, which I dont want to get into. If a person is speaking i want to hear them clearly, but no hiss. It can be made with fisher price grade plastic for all I care, just a good recording device with a decent price


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## Viggo (May 10, 2012)

I'll give you the best advice ever. At least for on camera , no post sync, option.

Get yourself an Olymps LS-3 "voice recorder"

It is NO noise and fantastic sound with a lot of options for no more money than an external mic, which sucks bigtime. Buy a hotshoe to 1/4" mount on ebay, and you're good to go.


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## expatinasia (May 13, 2012)

What is it you will be recording and from what distances etc? This is important.


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## degies (May 13, 2012)

I have a 7D and I have the same issue currently. In my research I have found the world of sound is just as complex as the world of light. You would need to think about what you are shooting since as with lenses and bodies there is n such thing as "one to solution to them all " So here is what I came up with

The Rode Video Pro is about $229 US - it is a shotgun style mic good for directional sound. Where you point it to is where you will get most sound
The Rode video Stereo mic is about $299 US and is better for ambiance sound. 
Both of these connect to your camera and is pretty portable. And for a seriously over priced $40 you can also get a fluffy catskin thingy to remove more wind noise
If you shoot Studio the Zoom H2n is about $231 US and is excellent if you want a portable audio recorder. In Post you just need to align the video and Audio tracks. As a Stills shooter I still need to figure this out

Now I have no issue with other manufacturers, but these are on my shortlist. B&H, Davomrmac and a few others have nice reviews on YouTube.


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## expatinasia (May 13, 2012)

You still have not said what it is you want to do with it.


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## awinphoto (May 13, 2012)

Thanks for replying guys... Examples of how I would want to be able to do it would be for example if i'm shooting a wedding, and doing set-up, dressing room video where off cuff I try to get the bride talking about how she met the groom so I can use it in a simple commemorative 3-5 minute video of their wedding day, or use it as audio overlay to include with their package, or have my second shooter shoot video of the bride and groom saying "i Do's" stuff like that... Or if' i'm doing commercial photography for a client on a resort or whatever and want to shoot some simple video to use for youtube or something like that for the resort... you know.. not trying to take the video industry by storm or anything, but something extra I could throw out to clients as a viable add-on or commemorative... something to add even more value to my work and my product.


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## bluegreenturtle (May 13, 2012)

degies said:


> I have a 7D and I have the same issue currently. In my research I have found the world of sound is just as complex as the world of light. You would need to think about what you are shooting since as with lenses and bodies there is n such thing as "one to solution to them all " So here is what I came up with
> 
> The Rode Video Pro is about $229 US - it is a shotgun style mic good for directional sound. Where you point it to is where you will get most sound
> The Rode video Stereo mic is about $299 US and is better for ambiance sound.
> ...



You'll never get a good result with a Rode video mic and a 7D (trust me, I have both of them) because the 7D never did get rid of the AGC; it always sounds like crap. You can use the Rode but it'll need to go into an external recorder. The Rode works well with other cameras that have manual audio, like the 5d II or III or the 60D. I still use mine (going into an external recorder, as backup to my wireless lav system in interviews) but it's just backup and was basically a waste of money. As you said that you have the 5D it would work for what you want.


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## degies (May 13, 2012)

> [The Rode works well with other cameras that have manual audio, like the 5d II or III or the 60D. I still use mine (going into an external recorder, as backup to my wireless lav system in interviews) but it's just backup and was basically a waste of money. As you said that you have the 5D it would work for what you want.]



Learning new stuff everyday ! Still has to be better than the onboard mic? I am pretty much set on the Zoom H2n anyway
thx


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## Viggo (May 13, 2012)

degies said:


> > [The Rode works well with other cameras that have manual audio, like the 5d II or III or the 60D. I still use mine (going into an external recorder, as backup to my wireless lav system in interviews) but it's just backup and was basically a waste of money. As you said that you have the 5D it would work for what you want.]
> 
> 
> 
> ...



I actually don't think the Rode Stereovideomic is better than the onboard mic. Sure it gives you very cool stereo width, but you get a very loud an annoying hiss, or extremely low sound.

The H4n is the preferred choice by many, but for me, it's to big to mount on camera, and I do to little video to be bothered with syncing up in post. The Olympus LS-3 is very small and light and gives you superb sound for a low price, and has a lot of options.

I set the rec level and headphone output quite high, and the audio level in camera (5d3) to one step over mute, I get no hiss and just that dry nice studio quality sound from 96 khz/24bit recording. No post needed.


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## bluegreenturtle (May 13, 2012)

I was referring to the Rode videomic Pro, which I have. I dunno anything about the stereo mic. Of course all of these do sound better than the onboard mic but the onboard is not usable in any sort of professional capacity.


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## Viggo (May 13, 2012)

bluegreenturtle said:


> I was referring to the Rode videomic Pro, which I have. I dunno anything about the stereo mic. Of course all of these do sound better than the onboard mic but the onboard is not usable in any sort of professional capacity.



Okay, cool, I haven't tried the Rode Video Pro so I can only speak for the normal videomic and the two stereo's.

The actual problem is far from a problem with the mic, I have tried it on other recorders and it's excellent, but the input of the DSLR's isn't very good so a pre-amp is very necessary....


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## expatinasia (May 14, 2012)

awinphoto said:


> Thanks for replying guys... Examples of how I would want to be able to do it would be for example if i'm shooting a wedding, and doing set-up, dressing room video where off cuff I try to get the bride talking about how she met the groom so I can use it in a simple commemorative 3-5 minute video of their wedding day, or use it as audio overlay to include with their package, or have my second shooter shoot video of the bride and groom saying "i Do's" stuff like that... Or if' i'm doing commercial photography for a client on a resort or whatever and want to shoot some simple video to use for youtube or something like that for the resort... you know.. not trying to take the video industry by storm or anything, but something extra I could throw out to clients as a viable add-on or commemorative... something to add even more value to my work and my product.



I really would not recommend a shotgun mic of any description for what you have described. You want the sound to be perfect (it is a wedding video after all) so I would use a wireless clip on mic, or even a wired clip on mic where you can. You can get some good ones quite inexpensively.


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