Please help - suggestions for microphone

Good day all. Thanks in advance for helping. I need a microphone for two purposes.

1) To conduct sit-down interviews
2) To hear people outside.

I really have no idea what I'm doing when it comes to microphones, so please let me know what I need to buy for a mini-DV camera (specifically a Canon Elura 100), whether it be an audio adapter or anything else.

I'm thinking a wireless lav mic, but once again I have no idea how they work. Looking at http://www.zzounds.com/item--NDYUHF3LTO, for example, it looks like the audio is sent to a receiver, but then how do I get the audio onto the videocamera?

Any help or suggestios would be greatly appreciated. Many thanks - Jon
 
Hi Jon,

You don't mention what your budget is, but I'm guessing since you're looking at a Nady product it's probably fairly low.

The first use you list - sit-down interviews - would be served by a wireless lav, if that's the way you want to go. The second use - hearing people outside - is a tad vague. In what kind of situation do you want to hear them outside? A wireless lav will work for that, too, if you just need to mic one person. If you're talking about recording a dialog scene, though, you'll either need two lav's or else mount a mic on a boom.

Some things to consider regarding wireless mic's:

1. The system you're looking at is intended for use with a fixed PA system. It's bulky and requires an AC power source. Mic manufacturers - including Nady - make portable systems that are specifically designed for use with camcorders. They're compact and operate on batteries. Might be a tad spendier, but the convenience will far outweigh the cost, believe me.

2. Wireless mic's can be notoriously unreliable. I've owned several over the years - currently have a Sennheiser system - and no matter how perfectly everything checks out when you test it, as soon as you wire the talent and start the interview all manner of hell breaks loose. We live in a world that is absolutely jammed with RF signals, all competing for bandwidth. Any anomaly, even variation in frequency by a thousandth of a Hz, and you've got a pop or crackle in the middle of your interviewee's sentence. Personally, I try to use my wireless only as a last resort.

3. The less you pay for a wireless system, the more prone it is to interference. That Nady looks like a lower-end product (I owned a couple Nadys back in the day). If you intend to rely on it as your primary mic, you may be setting yourself up for a real nightmare.

I own about a dozen different microphones, each of which is intended for a specific purpose. However, if I was only going to invest in one mic and expect it to do several jobs I would probably pick up a halfway decent shotgun mic. Audio-Technica makes some affordable models.

For sit-down interviews you can mount it on a boom-style mic stand, just out of frame above or below the subject. For dialog scenes you can mount it on a boom pole or pistol grip and have an assistant point it at whoever is speaking. For on-the-go shooting you can mount it directly onto your camcorder.

Assuming your camera does not have XLR inputs, you will need to buy an adapter to convert the mic signal from XLR to stereo mini. I personally own a Studio1 adapter, but I've heard Beachtek makes a good one as well.
 
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^ something like this

NADY i read is decent. It cost 447 USD at Walmart.com (Yes Walmart believe it or not).
 
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