mic alternative's?

[ryan brown]

A friend of mine picked up a little handheld JVC hard drive camcorder to shoot a few things, and I recommended a shotgun mic for audio.

Problem is, is that there's no 1/8th inch, or any other that I saw for a shotgun connection.

There's the firewire port, usb, and A/V, but that's it.

How can he get decent audio? is there anyway to rig up a shotgun? any other suggestions?

-brown

 

[x002657]

No alternatives I'm aware of.

No alternatives I'm aware of.

I have 2 JVC camcorders: 1 GR-D70U and 1 GR-DVL520U. While both have USB, DV and S-VHS jacks, neither have jacks for an external mic. (Both are a few yrs old and I didn't realize how important externals were when I bought them).

To my knowledge, there's no way to attach an external mic; neither of the user manuals even hint that there is. Another clue is that there's no "hardware", e.g. shoe, to attach any external device.

Both do have an A/V jack, though. On the DVL520U, that jack is only an output; on the D70U, it can be both in and out. One thing I've never tried, though, is plugging only a 1/8" mic plug into the A/V jack on the D70U. However, I suspect it wouldn't work, as using the A/V jack for input requires a menu change, and I believe that sets the cam to accept BOTH external audio and external video as input, i.e. if you plug only a mic into that jack after making that menu setting, you may end up with ONLY audio. You could try it, but I suspect you'd get no video.

The cable that comes with the cam is unique/propreitary to the cam, i.e. it has a "3-ring" jack...1 for video, and 2 for stereo audio. Whatever mic you plug into it would have to be situated/located at the correct"depth", and I've been unable to tell which of the "3 rings" is for audio and which for video.

The option suggested by GenJerDan would only work if you had a 1/8" jack to accept an external mic. Mine don't have any 1/8" jacks, and I suspect your friend's doesn't either. (In my experience, JVC consumer cams don't provide for external audio).

I suspect the best you can do is record sound digitally with an external device, then sync up the audio in post. That's a little tedious, but it's doable, if you have the recording device and a way to get the external audio into your NLE.

Good luck.

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