h4n and your HDSLR

[Sil3ntp8nd8]

From a D90 owner, audio its horrid on the camera. But then syncing audio from an external stereo mic is amazing! (h4n).

I can see that d90 owners would do this, unless your just overlaying music thus your crappy mono audio on the timeline is deleted anyways. But for 7D, d300s, etc etc to use an h4n as well even though those cameras have an audio input?

Is it because it records in mono? And if the h4n with the redhead sounds so amazing, why would one buy another rode mic for it? I can see having one for wireless but why add another mic?

Thank you for enlightening me

 

[natxbrotha]

Using the H4N by itself vs. coupling the H4N with a shotgun mic creates a whole different way of capturing the audio... A shotgun mic usually picks up only in front of you and rejects sound from the side and rear of the mic (uni-directional) unlike an omni or cardioid mic which picks up from different areas. Do a little research on microphone pick up patterns and what each one would be used for. The Zoom by itself with no external mic plugged in would be great for ambient room sound, live bands, micing speakers, etc... If you are trying to get dialogue (depending on what you are shooting) and external mic coupled with the zoom will yield much better results.

Hope this helps!

 

[Cassius]

Those cameras with an audio input don't have an XLR input. Which makes a huge difference. Mono and stereo are close to meaningless and have no effect on quality.

 

[Michael Olsen]

From a D90 owner, audio its horrid on the camera. But then syncing audio from an external stereo mic is amazing! (h4n).

I can see that d90 owners would do this, unless your just overlaying music thus your crappy mono audio on the timeline is deleted anyways. But for 7D, d300s, etc etc to use an h4n as well even though those cameras have an audio input?

Is it because it records in mono? And if the h4n with the redhead sounds so amazing, why would one buy another rode mic for it? I can see having one for wireless but why add another mic?

Thank you for enlightening me

People use external audio with the 7D because the 7D has auto gain control that cannot be turned off. So when there is quiet, the gain is turned way up, creating a rather noticeable hum/hiss. This is bad. On top of this, the audio is generally noisy all over. This is worse. And it happens regardless of whether one is using the internal microphone or an external mic.

People use external mics with the H4n because the mics on the H4n are better than those in the 7D, but not great. And they don't serve the same purpose as a good shotgun or lav in terms of pickup.

 

[yoclay]

Put an external mic on the H4N or a boom, pump it into the H4N and backup a 2nd output with a lav from same. You are covered. Sync with guide track audio from the 5D or 7D using Pluraleyes. The quality of the sound is much more pro. Otherwise use the Magic Lantern Hack and a Juicelinked 231 with mic and lav directly overlaying the audio of the 5D Mark II. The last possibility is to use the juicelinked DN-101 attached to one of their pre-amps to defeat the AGC. The output would then be going only to the left track. This product is good for mono interviews as with an on camera microphone. It is far better than the Beachtek version.