Anyone with experience with the Zoom SGH-6 Shotgun Microphone and how it compares.

D

Deer Film

Well-known member
I am interested in getting the Zoom SGH-6 Shotgun Mic and wondering if it is worth getting. And how it compares to other Shotgun microphones?
I have the G3 and AT4053b, and hope the Zoom Shotgun might be a good microphone to add to my gear and add on for the zoom h6.


Any thoughts or suggestion.
Thank you.
 
Like most gear, you get what you pay for. I would not expect much for $130. It appears it can't be used with a cable either. How would it be mounted on a boom, which I would assume to be the primary usage.
 
They actually describe the pattern as supercardioid, so it's a very short shotgun with a fairly wide pattern.

Personally I have my doubts. First you would have to boom the whole recorder since this isn't so much a microphone as a Zoom accessory. That would make monitoring and level checking adjusting problematic. And then there is the weight on the end of the stick... Also it's a Zoom. They make some decent consumer stuff but they are not noted for durability and they don't make microphones so your kind of on the bleeding edge. They also didn't list any specs at all so who knows what the noise level is, or even what the pattern looks like. IF I had a H6 (and liked the sound/ noise level) I might pick one up for FX work and just general flexibility. I don't have an H6 but the other Zooms I have owned or used were fairly noisy so I wouldn't expect a lot better here. But maybe the H6 is a big improvement over the earlier ones? If it is then maybe the mic is OK. I still wouldn't use it for anything I was booming though.
 
I have the SGH-6. I'd say it's decent but not great. The noise floor is quite high. No measurements but at 'rest' in a quiet room it's noisier than the two other mics I have, a Rode NTG3 and a Neumann 185.

It's a wide pattern. A specific example: when mounted on a hotshoe, it very obviously picks up the motor noise of my 24-105mm with image stabilization is turned on.
 
I got my H6 couple of days ago and the first thing I noticed was the noise that the H6 captures with the SGH-6, had to play with the gain to have a decent noise floor, although I was not happy with what I got. Also tried the two stock mics and had similar noise floor level... quite high for my taste. I haven't tried my NTG3, I hope it is not that bad, although I bought the SGH-6 to avoid carrying the Rode and cables around for easy recording, but I feel disappointed about this acquisition as I paid a fair amount of cash for the whole set.

I will play more with it during the weekend to find out what is the best compromise and I will let you know the results.
 
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