which mic for on camera use on a sony trv 900

G

grgry

New member
hello everybody,

at the moment i'm looking into buying an unexpensive mic, which is usable on a sony trv 900 dv camera. searching around on the internet i found this resource here and read tons of quality posts and thought i'd ask here in case some of you have experience with the trv 900.

so here's the deal:

i want to buy a mic for my girlfriends birthday, because she is getting into documentary filming. she can't afford a sound team, so the mic has to be mountable on the trv 900 and needs to be suitable for allround use (indoors and outdoors) with a price range between 100$-250$.

currently she is renting a Sennheiser ME 64 mic, which is a cardoic mic and from what i read here a hypercardoic mic would be more suitable. so i read all about the praised Oktava MK 012 and thought it would be the perfect choice, but it has no internal phantom power supply and i'm unsure if it could be used for the trv 900. the sony manual says, the mic in supplies power for "Plug-in-Microphones" but i assume that does not mean it could supply the 48V for the Oktava MK 012, right?

so if anyone could give me a hint if the Oktava is suitable or maybe has another idea which other allround mic (maybe with internal phantom power supply if that is necessary) to pick, i'd be very happy and thankful!

and i know, there are no "allround-mics" :)

thanks!
 
The TRV-900 (unlike its PD-series cousine) has neither XLR ins nor phantom powering. So, to attach most condensor mics, you'll need a device like the Beachtek DXA-6 (passive XLR to 1/8" stereo adapter with phantom power).

The "Plug-in power" found on the TRV-900 applies a bias voltage to the 1/8" mic in, and is generally only used by consumer and pro-sumer mics.

Remember that you'll have two audio channels, so there's no reason you can't run a handheld interview mic into the second channel. After all, the closer you can get that mic, the better. A dynamic interview mic like the Shure SM-58 or Sennheiser MD-46 can be very reasonably priced, and is always a good addition to a kit.
 
thanks for clearing that up, SMuir, i thought so much but wasn't really sure. i told her to buy the pd 150 back then but she just wouldn't listen...

anyways, do you have a suggestion for battery-powered mics similar to the Oktava (e.g. from the Sennheiser K6 Series or the Rode NTG2)?

the beachtek adapter is way too expensive for me (at the moment)...
 
The problem is that even with a mic that has internal power (such as a back-electret condensor) the TRV-900 still needs an XLR to 1/8" stereo adapter. Beachtek has a number of other adapters like the DXA-2d that lack phantom power (and thus are priced lower), but you'll nevertheless need something to plug XLR mics into that mini stereo plug. You could certainly make a custom XLR to 1/8" adapter cable, but you may run into one of many line hums for which the older Sony handycams are notorious. They may seem overpriced, but those beachtek boxes really get the job done.
 
i suppose you're right with the need for a proper connection between camera and mic and i will have to look into the cable matter a lot more thorough (and the beachtek adapters :) ).

i'm not sure if she experienced hums with her rented ME66 with custom made adapter cable, but i'll point her to the problem some time.

guess i just buy a rode ntg2 and make her consider it as a starting point for building her own kit, on which i can now fortunately give advice now after reading all the posts here in the forum and your help.

thanks again.
 
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