Cheap/decent mic standup AND on-camera.

[Sjur Pollen]

Hi.

 

I'm currently trying to make up my mind if I should buy the HVX200, and one of the things I'm unsure of is what mic I should buy with it. I wan't a mic that can be used both as a camera-mounted mic, and as a reporter-mic, as I occasionally do freelance ENG work.

 

Does anyone have any suggestion on a cheap, but decent mic that can be used both mounted and handheld?

 

Any reply is greatly appreciated.

[Richard Overall]

hi there,

 

Hmm that's tough, because your camera mounted mic will want to be a shotgun, whilst the hand held will need to have a wider pattern, such as a cardiod microphone. That is assuming that the hand held will be held by a presenter talking to camera. They really are two different tasks and you'll be compromising a lot to try and get one mic to do both.

 

Here's the thing - sound is half of the equation. Some would say even more. If you are going to spend the big bucks on a camera to get great pictures, they will be worth nothing with bad audio. I would suggest you really need to allow a decent budget for your audio - othwise you will hate your end footage no matter how good it looks. And if money is really tight, I would argue that you'd be better off buying the cheaper DVX100 instead of the HVX200 and putting the money you save into your audio equipment.

 

Now, in saying this, it doesn't mean you have to spend thousands on good sound.

If your budget is tight, then in my opinion the Rode NTG-1 and NTG-2 are pretty good entry level shotgun mics for on camera. The only difference between the two of them is the NTG-1 needs phantom power while the NTG-2 has it's own power supply. They are around the $220 to $250 price range at B&H Photo.

 

I'm not really down on what would be a good cardiod mic, however considering you are thinking of buying an HVX, if you havn't already, go to DVXUser.com and check out their forums, especially the audio. You'll be hard pressed to find a question that can't be answered by the experts who hang around there. Read the stickies at the top and you'll learn so much about getting good audio, and how important it is.

 

Hope this helps and good luck!