Sam Peterson

What I'm going to do/am doing is I ordered a simple xlr to 1/8" cable and a 25' canare xlr cable. If I get any hiss or anything that bothers me too much once I get my shotgun mic, I'll save up for that Beachtek adapter. Might as well start out cheap and see if that works for me. Thanks for the input everyone.

Oh, two more good ideas. Thanks. Yeah, a more directional bulb should definitely help, not sure why I didn't think of that earlier. I'll also check out some slide projectors on ebay, sounds like you could get some cool looks with one, could even possibly be used in future projects. Thanks again for the suggestions.

Thanks for the reply, I'll give that a shot.

Hi, sorry if this has been asked before, I did a few searches and didn't find anything addressing my situation I'm going to be filming a video soon that calls for a scene where someone is sitting in a chair in a pitch black room, the only light being a single bulb above him that pretty much lights only him and the ground below him, basically a spot light. I don't want it to light up the rest of the room. I don't have any money to spend for this as its a one time use deal (helping friend with a school video project) but was wondering if you guys had any good ideas for achieving this effect with lights easily available at home or elsewhere. My plan so far is to put a longer "shield" of foil on a simple clamp light directing the light in a single direction as much as possible but I still get a decent amount of ambient light from that. Any suggestions or advice would be much appreciated. Thank you.

Thanks for the replies everyone. I appreciate the help. To Mike Wallach, what benefit would that Beachtek adapter have over normal converter cables? Do those cables tend to have hiss, quality loss, or something else that the Beachtek adapter resolves? I'm curious about this because this seems like exactly what I was looking for, but its almost $200 as opposed to an 1/8" to XLR cable that would cost about $20. (Sorry if my questions seem obvious, I'm new to this) Thanks.

Little update. I now realize the USB audio board needs a computer while recording so thats pretty much out. I also forgot to ask, would it be worth it to get a short cable that goes from 1/8" to XLR, then buy a longer XLR cable and use that kind of setup? I know there would be some quality loss, but to what extent? Would the quality loss be negligible or would it kind of defeat the purpose of buying a $200 shotgun microphone? I'm just trying to find the best solution to getting the best audio with a Canon HV20. Thanks. -Sam

Thanks a lot for the article and review, it really made my decision easier. Great information.

Hello, I'm a 21 year old student and just purchased a Canon HV20 camcorder to continue making special effects tests and start making actual short films. I plan to buy a shotgun mic soon (thanks to Dan Brockett for the helpful review) to add more professional-like audio. My question is, because I bought an HV20 due to prosumer camcorders with XLR Ins being out of my budget, what would be my best option to be able to use a shotgun mic along with the HV20. I heard about the M-Audio USB audio board, but as I looked into it more, it seems that it must be plugged into a computer while recording. Please correct me if this is wrong. But it seems like that would make it impractical to use for almost all outdoor filming, as carrying around a laptop along with the other equipment would be a hassle. Is there any type of setup I could use where theres an audio board that has a build in hard drive, or some other set up I haven't found yet? If anyone has any information or advice I would much appreciate it. Thank you. -Sam