New Audio-Technica AT875 Shotgun Mic

[Jeff B]

I have read a lot of discussions about shotgun mics on this group. None mention this new mic that was announced at NAB and is about to be released.

Here is a discussion about the mic from another board.

What are your thoughts?

 

[Masta T]

thats a very short mic.
wonder how good the quality is.

 

[Spartacus]

What, no bashing from Oleg, yet? :laugh:

 

[puredrifting]

Hi:

That mic looks like AT capitalizing on the many thousands of DVX/HVX/PD/VX owners who want to buy a "professional" mic for their camcorders. Judging from the length and pickup pattern, I would suspect that this mic will offer no suprises, it is a short condenser shotgun that is designed to reject off-axis sound and to minimize camera zoom motor noise and handling noise.

I suspect that it will sound okay, it's cheap and small. The sad part is that most camcorder owners will mount this on their camcorders, expecting to obtain professional results. The only thing usable from camera mounted mics is usually ambient sound at events. This mic does not refute the laws of sound and physics and when camera mounted will never be a substitute for placing a mic near the sound source via mic stand or boom pole.

I have been using the Sennheiser K6 power supply with the ME-64 cardoid capsule for years http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/92909-REG/Sennheiser_ME64_K6P_COMBO_ME64_K6P_Cardioid_Mic.html

It's about an inch longer than this new AT, probably sounds better and has very good rear and off-axis response, although it is significantly more expensive. The big advantage of the K6 is that it is adaptable to other capsules as well though, like the popular ME-66 and the not as popular ME-67 long shotgun capsule. I have all three capsules along with the K6 and I have been very happy over the years with these functioning as my "cheap mic system". When the project calls for higher quality sound, I prefer the Sennheiser MKH-60.

I would be interested in testing this new mic though, it is cheap and if it sounds good, it could become a valuable tool for those who did not budget their kit correctly and can only afford a relatively cheap mic. Seems to strange to me how many camcorder purchasers will lay out $10,000.00 for an HVX-200, P2 cards and a lens adaptor, then will skimp and only pay a few hundred on the truly important components like a tripod and microphones. It's a bad and shortsighted allocation of funds to buy a killer camera, then to buy only the cheapest of important accesories like these.

Enough scolding, but I hear and read about it every day, it's frustrating at how so many camcorder buyers don't know how to make intelligent buying decisions. Nothing against any of you on this thread but if you read the boards, you will see an amazing amount of people who have sunk tens of thousands of dollars into state of the art cameras, lens adaptors, Marshall monitors, etc. asking about what a good $200.00 tripod is for their rig or how they only have $300.00 for their entire audio kit. It makes me scratch my head somethimes, camera movement and sound are so much more important that almost anything else they can do with their cameras, yet they skimp and cheap out because they have already broken the bank.

Best,

Dan