What do I need for a NTG-3 to use it with a EOS 5d MII
- Thread starter muroshi
- Start date
Steve House
Veteran
Well, you have a couple of issues to deal with. First you need a source of phantom power for the mic - it doesn't have an internal battery and needs 48v phantom to operate. Then you'll need to adapt the balanced mono XLR ouput of the mic to an unbalanced stereo 3.5 miniplug jack. A mixer will do both as will an adapter such as the Juicedlink. Mixers typically output a line level signal while the Juiced sends a mic level, which is what the camera wants and a mixer would have to be padded down. As far as using an external recorder versus going to the camera, that one I don't know. it depends on the quality of the camera's audio side and I don't have a feel for that.
dpFilms
Member
At a bare minimum, I'd recommend:
- a mixer with phantom power (Sound Devices and JuicedLink are highly-regarded)
- as an alternative to a mixer, you could go with a Beachtek style mic adapter but you'll get more utility out of a mixer
- a balanced XLR mic cable
- a cable to patch from the output of your mixer to the camera (which I'm assuming has a 1/8" mini jack)
- headphones to monitor with
If you're building a kit from scratch, don't forget to factor in a boompole, shock mount and wind protection as these items are crucial and quality gear isn't cheap.
Personally--and I think you'll hear similar advice from others on this board--I'd go with an external recorder. It doesn't necessarily "complicate everything". I don't have experience with the audio on the EOS 5D but you'll find that the audio circuitry in most consumer-level camcorders (i.e. I'd consider the 5D a pro "camera" but a consumer "camcorder") is far from ideal. You'll be much happier making an investment in a decent recorder.
I was in the same quandary as you a few months back... building a kit from scratch. In the end, I weighed the cost of a decent battery-operated, phantom-power mixer (at approx. $350 - $400) against a dedicated audio recorder (also with phantom power) at $550 and in the end, went with the Fostex FR2-LE. I'm happy with the decision.
One not-so-obvious benefit of a dedicated recorder is that your audio hardware doesn't have to be tethered to your camera. Your picture and sound "crews" (they might be crew of one) can operate independently. Just remember to buy a set of clapper sticks. They really help in post.
I will agree that recording audio to a separate device complicates your editing workflow somewhat (i.e. you have additional media, files, transfers, storage, syncing, etc. to deal with) but the quality and versatility it buys you far outweigh the inconvenience.
Hope this helps.
- a mixer with phantom power (Sound Devices and JuicedLink are highly-regarded)
- as an alternative to a mixer, you could go with a Beachtek style mic adapter but you'll get more utility out of a mixer
- a balanced XLR mic cable
- a cable to patch from the output of your mixer to the camera (which I'm assuming has a 1/8" mini jack)
- headphones to monitor with
If you're building a kit from scratch, don't forget to factor in a boompole, shock mount and wind protection as these items are crucial and quality gear isn't cheap.
Personally--and I think you'll hear similar advice from others on this board--I'd go with an external recorder. It doesn't necessarily "complicate everything". I don't have experience with the audio on the EOS 5D but you'll find that the audio circuitry in most consumer-level camcorders (i.e. I'd consider the 5D a pro "camera" but a consumer "camcorder") is far from ideal. You'll be much happier making an investment in a decent recorder.
I was in the same quandary as you a few months back... building a kit from scratch. In the end, I weighed the cost of a decent battery-operated, phantom-power mixer (at approx. $350 - $400) against a dedicated audio recorder (also with phantom power) at $550 and in the end, went with the Fostex FR2-LE. I'm happy with the decision.
One not-so-obvious benefit of a dedicated recorder is that your audio hardware doesn't have to be tethered to your camera. Your picture and sound "crews" (they might be crew of one) can operate independently. Just remember to buy a set of clapper sticks. They really help in post.
I will agree that recording audio to a separate device complicates your editing workflow somewhat (i.e. you have additional media, files, transfers, storage, syncing, etc. to deal with) but the quality and versatility it buys you far outweigh the inconvenience.
Hope this helps.
SMuir
Well-known member
DpFilms is right on the money: double-system recording will give you far better sound in this situation than single-system. As long as you're careful about slating protocol, the additional post-production work won't take very long at all.
Expanding on the "not tethered to the camera" point: a dedicated audio recorder will give you the capacity to easily roll your own location voiceover and effects. Additionally, you can record room tones and wild-takes without using up your camera media.
The FR-2 and FR-2 LE are great recorders, and my FR-2 has never let me down. The Sound Devices recorders are a bit more money but have fantastic preamps. Although I haven't tried one yet, the new Marantz PMD661 looks like another solid option, especially since its about 30% smaller than the PMD660.
Expanding on the "not tethered to the camera" point: a dedicated audio recorder will give you the capacity to easily roll your own location voiceover and effects. Additionally, you can record room tones and wild-takes without using up your camera media.
The FR-2 and FR-2 LE are great recorders, and my FR-2 has never let me down. The Sound Devices recorders are a bit more money but have fantastic preamps. Although I haven't tried one yet, the new Marantz PMD661 looks like another solid option, especially since its about 30% smaller than the PMD660.
I use the 5d Mark II also. Trust me, you will want to go dual-system rather than record to the camera. In fact, you will pretty much be forced to since you're using the NTG-3, as the others explained. It's a great mic (I have it also), and you will want a quality mixer and recorder to take avantage of it.
The 5d preamps suck and there is zero control over audio levels. The gain is entirely automatic, meaning levels will be adjusted according to the camera's hard-coded instructions when there are peaks and lows in the audio being recorded. That's just unacceptable for most productions. Beachtek is coming out with a mixer/adapter built just for the 5d, but, with no control over what is actually being recorded, it just isn't really worth it.
I use a Sound Devices 302 mixer along with a Sound Devices 702 recorder. They're an investment, but well worth it, and good audio devices don't go obsolete quite like cameras do.
The 5d preamps suck and there is zero control over audio levels. The gain is entirely automatic, meaning levels will be adjusted according to the camera's hard-coded instructions when there are peaks and lows in the audio being recorded. That's just unacceptable for most productions. Beachtek is coming out with a mixer/adapter built just for the 5d, but, with no control over what is actually being recorded, it just isn't really worth it.
I use a Sound Devices 302 mixer along with a Sound Devices 702 recorder. They're an investment, but well worth it, and good audio devices don't go obsolete quite like cameras do.
Thanks for the input so far.
dpFilms: Are you using no mixer with the fostex. What is the difference among Fostex FR2-LE and FR2?
I could also rent following recorders:
http://kulturbuero.ch/index.php?id=zh,audio-recorder
Tascam DR-1 or
Tascam HD-P2 which looks a bit more complicated.
dpFilms: Are you using no mixer with the fostex. What is the difference among Fostex FR2-LE and FR2?
I could also rent following recorders:
http://kulturbuero.ch/index.php?id=zh,audio-recorder
Tascam DR-1 or
Tascam HD-P2 which looks a bit more complicated.
dpFilms
Member
No mixer required with the Fostex units. Pretty much any stand-alone field recorder has trims, pre-amps and such so an external mixer isn't required. Not to say you can't use one with them but there's really no point .
The LE is a "light edition" of the FR-2. I don't recall all the spec's but the latter has a more substantial chassis and an optional time code card as an accessory. The circuitry might be higher quality as well but I find the LE to be more than adequate in "quietness" and other such subjective measures.
I have no experience with the Tascam units but tend to believe they're good quality. Don't be intimidated by the "more complicated" looking units. Once you get them biased, you don't need to know much more than where the Record and Stop buttons are.
The LE is a "light edition" of the FR-2. I don't recall all the spec's but the latter has a more substantial chassis and an optional time code card as an accessory. The circuitry might be higher quality as well but I find the LE to be more than adequate in "quietness" and other such subjective measures.
I have no experience with the Tascam units but tend to believe they're good quality. Don't be intimidated by the "more complicated" looking units. Once you get them biased, you don't need to know much more than where the Record and Stop buttons are.
SMuir
Well-known member
The FR-2 has very good, warm-sounding preamps, and can be used perfectly well without a mixer on the front-end. That said, I use a PSC 4-channel mixer with mine for a number of reasons: a little bit more available clean gain, remote boom fader, four input channels, and more user-friendly gain controls (I'm not a big fan of the FR-2's knob-and-ring level controls).
RandomHero
Well-known member
Gotta agree with Phoric here. For the best audio you'd want a completely separate recording device, something like the Edirol R-44 would go great with the NTG-3. The mixers would be a very sweet touch, but the R-44 does have some mixing features, and can record your audio as well for less than the 302. Something to check out
All the best, the 5D Markii rocks!!