Need a Mic for my caerma - help :)

E

Enaver

Hey guys jsut finished making my latest short film and ive found a massive problem with unwanted sound which has ruined it for me.

I currently have a Canon 550d and id like a great Mic to go with it.

I have a budget of £200 which i am hoping is enough.

Thanks everyone!
 
Sound is not as simple as you'd like it to be.

You don't pay attention to it and don't care about it, until it's bad or not there...

You should consider getting an external recorder.

On your budget, a Zoom H1 and a Rode VideoMic Pro seems like a good idea.

Best thing you can do is get a dedicated sound guy though!

If you feed the microphone directly into the camera, you will have problems with AGC (auto gain correction). You will notice a hissing noise! You can get around that using magic latern, but the preamps in the DSLR are bad anyway. So use an external recorder.

Zoom H1 is cheap at about 80 pounds. The Videomic Pro isnt that expensive either
 
Enaver said:
Hey guys jsut finished making my latest short film and ive found a massive problem with unwanted sound which has ruined it for me.
Click to expand...

Very typical. I think most of us do the same thing, we
focus so much on the camera we forget that sound is
half the experience. As much focus should be on audio,
as you have found out.

What happened to you is what happens to most of us:
it's called signal to noise ratio. The further away the mic
is from the actors, the higher the volume needs to be.
The higher the volume, the more “noise” you get. Your
goal is to have a very high signal to noise ratio - more
signal (the dialogue) less noise (the background). Even
a very good, expensive Sennheiser mounted on the
camera will pick up a lot of background ambiance because
it’s far away from the actors.
 
The other aspect that you need to consider is getting the mic off of the camera and getting it onto a boom-pole and getting someone to swing the boom. The job of the boom-op is to keep the mic aimed at the mouths of the talent.

To recap:

Get a decent mic.

Get a separate audio recorder.

Get the mic off the camera and onto a boom-pole.

Get someone to "swing" the boom.

Put the same amount of time and effort into capturing solid sound as you do capturing pretty pictures.

"Sound is half of the experience."
 
Is it worth getting a mic for a DSLR like that?
Also, I would suggest doing what everyone else has suggested and get a completely separate audio recorder. I use a Rode-NTG2 V.4 or something. I love it, so good.. But if I'm filming something with a cinematic feel to it I recorded the sound separate from the footage and while editing it I match it all up.
 
For indoor use you can get a Rode NT3 for about $100. They sound really good and have there own power and thus can plug right in to your camera.
 
brianluce said:
For indoor use you can get a Rode NT3 for about $100. They sound really good and have there own power and thus can plug right in to your camera.
Click to expand...

They are about $270 new. The NT-5 would be a better choice. Both are a cardioids, not hypercardioid.

Are you possibly thinking of the $150 Rode M3? Rather big a clunky for boom-pole use. (Very similar to the venerable AKG C-1000S.)
 
Alcove Audio said:
They are about $270 new. The NT-5 would be a better choice. Both are a cardioids, not hypercardioid.

Are you possibly thinking of the $150 Rode M3? Rather big a clunky for boom-pole use. (Very similar to the venerable AKG C-1000S.)
Click to expand...

Oh sorry, I left out a keyword, "used". I got one on ebay a few weeks ago for $100 and like it a lot. The thing super heavy duty, a little too heavy, but I still use it camera mounted, boom mounted, stand mounted, every which way.

I do recommend it for DSLR though, because it's self powered.

I also recommend it for war zone photo journalism use because it can stop a bazooka shell, and if you were surrounded you could use it as a club and beat your enemy to death with it. Very versatile tool.
 
I can actually really recommend getting the Tascam DR-100 or the Zoom H4N, both great field recorders with tons of options and good battery life, at least for the Tascam (that's the one I've got) Get a decent windscreen and you've got a nice handy recorder, plus it takes two XLR inputs along with a 3.5mm input.

Get one of those, along with a shotgun microphone and a boom pole and you're set!
 
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