Canon 60D Microphone Options Under $400 for Talking head video

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rezanaghibi

Member
Hello

I'm looking for the cheapest most bang-for-buck audio setup for a Canon 60D; the application is a talking head video, to be shot in a small room with fairly good insulation in an office that has a fairly noisy A/C but an A/C that is under our control.

The Rode seems to be the most popular (http://bit.ly/nS7VmH) but I'm afraid that's simply too rich for my blood since it's the same price as the 60D itself. I have experience with both so i'm not worried about anything but price and quality for the buck.

Are lavalier setups a better idea for the application intended (talking head video for blog purposes)?

Thanks in advance!
 
People usually refer to the Rode Videomic or VM Pro. That NTG3 is severe overkill going into a DSLR's crappy audio processing.

Buckwise, aside from the Videomics, consider going dual-system and syncing in post. For your purposes, something like a Zoom H1 could act as both a recorder and mic, assuming you could mount it close enough to the presenter.
 
H4n or Sony pcm-m10 field recorders will give you the best sound quality at an affordable price. Synch in post and you're good to go. No matter what mic you buy the preamps in these Canon dslrs will never sound as good as an external recorder.
 
Perhaps the most important thing not mentioned here is mic placement. I own a a 788T and a Schoeps MK41. This $9K combination won't do me any good if I try to mount the mic on the camera. Regardless of the device that you use to record the audio, placing the mic properly is what counts here. If you are recording an interview absolutely, positively do not EVER, under any circumstances mount the mic on the camera. Judging from the posts I read here this bears repeating: if you are trying to properly capture what a person you are shooting says, NEVER, NEVER, NEVER mount the mic on the camera. Those who disagree may send me a PM and I'll explain it.
 
mcbob said:
People usually refer to the Rode Videomic or VM Pro. That NTG3 is severe overkill going into a DSLR's crappy audio processing.
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Agreed, and also will be overkill for the intended purpose.
The VideoMic Pro will do well- just make sure it is the PRO version, with the +20db gain. The point here is the avoid the camera's gain as much as possible, since they are on the noisy side. Keeping the gains as low as possible and amping the sound before it hits the camera can give you nice, clean audio.
But in order to do this right, you'll need Magic Lantern installed on your 60D to get full control of the audio chip. Setting the gain Canon's menu to zero turns off the digital gain, as I understand it, but in order to set both digital and analog to zero you need ML. Then, you either need the VideoMic Pro or a good lav like the Sennheiser G2 or G3, which has its own preamp as well.

vision_filmz said:
H4n or Sony pcm-m10 field recorders will give you the best sound quality at an affordable price. Synch in post and you're good to go. No matter what mic you buy the preamps in these Canon dslrs will never sound as good as an external recorder.
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Technically true, but for interviews the camera amps are more than capable- especially with Magic Lantern and a good hot feed into the camera. The added hassle of a separate recorder and syncing in post is about as overkill as the NT-3 mic the OP mentions above.

For talking head / blog purposes, I recommend either the Sennheiser wireless lav system with a mic clipped up close, or get the rode VMP on a stand directly over the subject's head. I did this recently for someone wearing a T-shirt after playing basketball (no good place for a mic to clip on clothing) and was pleasantly surprised with how good the VMP worked. I had it attached to spare reflector stand and pointing downwards out of the frame. Had a 6' audio extension cable going from the mic to the input jack of the camera.

The VMP is actually designed to sit atop the camera, but unless you are using a super wide lens, its hard to get close enough to use that well.
 
Since when was synching in post difficult? I do it all of the time with Music videos , Commercial clips, etc....

Personally I would never use Magic lantern when I can just put a recorded in the guys pocket and just place a lav on him.... But hey there's a many ways to do this.
 
what is magic lantern and how would i go about installing that?

sounds like the rode vmp is the way to go. any last thots? i'll be forwarding my client the microphone in question for him to go and buy to use monday morning. thanks a lot for all your tips so far!
 
rezanaghibi said:
what is magic lantern and how would i go about installing that?
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It's a third-party firmware update, more like a plug-in. It operates slightly differently on different Canon DSLRs (no option for the 7D). For cameras that have non-defeatable AGC, ML adds the option to turn AGC off. It adds manual audio level control for cameras that don't have it. It also adds a ton of very handy features for video.

http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?248171-Magic-Lantern-Firmware
 
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vision_filmz said:
Personally I would never use Magic lantern when I can just put a recorded in the guys pocket and just place a lav on him.... But hey there's a many ways to do this.
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Placing a recorder in the subject's pocket, with a lav feeding it, is a recipe for disaster. How do you know, until after the fact, that the recorder didn't stop mid-take? How do you know that the connector for the lav didn't jostle itself loose during the interview? How do you know know that the audio didn't overmodulate in some places?

I know that there are several people out there who do this, but there are so many reasons no to. The only way to know for sure that the recording is clean is to listen to each take all the way through. Either it doubles production time as takes are played back right after they're recorded, or there are unpleasant surprises in the edit bay. All my years doing audio for TV... I would never, ever put my sound at risk of failure.

Without a way to monitor audio as it is recorded, it's really just a guessing game. I'm not a fan of Magic Lantern as a single and primary audio recording system, but if it comes down to a choice between a recorder that I cannot see or hear during production, and my T2i with Magic Lantern, I'll take the T2i. With a cable recently made available, headphone monitoring is available from the USB port on Canon DSLR cameras with Magic Lantern. It's still not a perfect system, but it's certainly better than not being able to monitor.
 
Wow! You guys are such pros! I just use the rode mic attached to the top of my camera and clean up the sound in soundtrack pro. It seems ok for my video blogging needs and such. thanks for the additional info.
 
+100 on mic placement

Get your mic as close as you can to your subject, or use a high quality LAV mic like the Countryman EMW or TRAM 50 going in to a small digital recorder like the Zoom H1 that can be tucked in to a pocket or clipped to a belt.
 
miss said:
Wow! You guys are such pros! I just use the rode mic attached to the top of my camera and clean up the sound in soundtrack pro. It seems ok for my video blogging needs and such. thanks for the additional info.
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Remember, folks on this forum come from a wide variety of experiences and backgrounds. Some of us are doing low-budget talking head and video blogging, while others are doing network broadcast and award winning film work. There's a sliding scale. What works for some might be considered completely unusable for another.

I recently shot an interview that is intended to be used for a network broadcast promo. I don't think they would have been happy if I submitted footage taken with a mic on top of the camera. But for a holiday greeting from an internet celebrity to his fans, sure why not.
 
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