Best Travel Documentary Shotgun Mics

C

cinewan

Member
I am sure we have great documentary storytellers here! looking forward to your input on what you are using and at what price bracket.

Am Looking for the best Shotgun Mic for travel documetaries, for the most part it will be outside.

No time for the most part to mic everyone, being able to capture the moment visual and with sound is priceless.

Price range of about $250 - $350

Looking forward to your input.
 
Well since you can't afford a Senheizer etc...


I have had good success with a cheap mic from HK. I spent $50 on it express shipped and it sounds remarkedly clean. In fact, in post we couldn't tell the difference between it and a $700 sennheiser. It's also built quite solid.

The one I bought was this one: http://cgi.ebay.ca/10-83-Inch-NEW-C...emQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item56377c80ab

Not sure which seller. I can't seem to go back that far on ebay. I htink this is one of those items that just happens to be decent. Not all cheap HK products are going to song good. :)
 
For real?

For real?

Denwa said:
Well since you can't afford a Senheizer etc...


I have had good success with a cheap mic from HK. I spent $50 on it express shipped and it sounds remarkedly clean. In fact, in post we couldn't tell the difference between it and a $700 sennheiser. It's also built quite solid.

The one I bought was this one: http://cgi.ebay.ca/10-83-Inch-NEW-C...emQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item56377c80ab

Not sure which seller. I can't seem to go back that far on ebay. I htink this is one of those items that just happens to be decent. Not all cheap HK products are going to song good. :)
Click to expand...

Wow. Can you tell if it is the same product (even if from a different seller)? The Buy It Now price is $10! + $19 for shipping. They don't say that they will combine shipping if you order multiple units. Otherwise at $10 each they are almost "expendable"!
 
Yes, that is why I bought one in the first place. It was going to be a back up mic but I liked it so much I never bought the "primary" mic.

$30 shipped. $50 Express shipped. So yeah, in this industry... expendable.

I really would like to see this mic properly analyzed, but for our ears it sounded great. (and I have picky ears). I'm tempted to get the 14" model for comparison.

AS for figuring out if it is really the same model as a big name mic but repackaged.. I don't know how to tell that. I do know a lot of mid to high end mics are actually made in china, so who knows.

Buying things from china is like playing the lottery. Some times you win, some times you do not.

The mic in that link looks to be the same product as the one I bought. Someone else on DVXUser also recommends these mics. For the price it's worth a try and if your ears like it then great, if not then at least you have a decent backup mic.

My Mic: HTGZ HT-320A. Uni-Directional Electret Condenser Microphone
Selectable between "Normal" and "Tele". Powered by a 1.5v batt.

EDIT: Found this: http://www.htdz.com.cn/en/productsDisplay.asp?id=939
 
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Any chance of you putting a sample from this mic up somewhere? I'd like it to compare against mine.
 
Jim, Proper comparison would be to have the 2 mics side by side, levels adjusted to the same reference point and recorded on/through the same mixer and camera or recorder.

What is your mic?

I may try this with my buddy's sennheizer.
 
Røde NTG2's a screamin' deal, value wise. However, if you're traveling, I'd seriously consider carrying a backup mic and not just buy one.
 
There are a ton of very similar cheap shotguns out of china under a number of brands and they're basically universally terrible. Don't waste your money.

At the budget you give, you're basically limited to some of the cheaper Audio Technica guns like the 897 & 875 and Rode's NTG-1 & NTG-2.

It's out of your stated budget, but if you're going to be traveling around a lot into different environments, I'd suggest at least an NTG-3.
 
Denwa said:
Jim, Proper comparison would be to have the 2 mics side by side, levels adjusted to the same reference point and recorded on/through the same mixer and camera or recorder.

What is your mic?

I may try this with my buddy's sennheizer.
Click to expand...

If you can compare it to the senn, that's fine. I don't need to compare it in detail, really. I'd just like to hear something recorded for myself, to see if I think the quality is good enough for my purposes - it'd probably be used as a backup mic. It sounds like it would be.

I have an AT875R, though.
 
I use the Oktava MK012, with the hyper cap on my HVX200. We conduct a lot of interviews with it in all sorts of conditions, with lots of ambient noise and it hasn't let us down yet. It's a fantastic mic for the money (sells for around 150 euros). The audio quality is great (in my opinion superior to many mics 3 times the price) and the hyper version is great for interviews. For outdoor stuff you would really need a quality softie windshield. The mic is sensitive so you also need to very careful with cable movements etc. The added plus of this mic is that you can switch the caps and turn it into a quality cardioid and onmi mic for capturing ambient sound. But overall highly recommended.
 
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