NTG-2 or AT897 or AT875r

ROCKMORE

ROCKMORE

Veteran
Looks like the DR-100 for the field recorder in my budget to go with a 550D.

Any comments on these three mic choices?

Rode- NTG-2
AT-897
AT-875r

I also have an old Sony ECM 55B lav to plug in the second channel.
 
I have not tested the NTG-2 but I did test the NTG-3 and it is one of the best values on the market. It sounds like a better version of the Sennheiser 416 for a lot less money.

The Audio Technica AT-875R is the best cheap mic on the market. I have one, use it all of the time and am very happy with the sound, size and the cost was less than $200.00. I recorded samples with it here http://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/right_mic_brockett.html

AT-897 does nothing for me. It is not a bad mic, but I feel that the 875R is more practical (it is designed as an on-camera mic but it kicks rear on a boom as well) and a better value. If you are an audio noob, don't forget to factor in a boom pole, boom pole holder, XLRs, headphones, mic mount, zeppelin into your budgeting. You are not buying a mic, you need to buy a mic system, which includes all of the necessary support gear. Add up all of the stuff you will need besides just the mic and you will quickly see that you need more $$ than you think you will.

Dan
 
There's no "perfect mic", a lot of people prefer the NTG-1 over the NTG-2 or 3, the 897 over the 875, VideoMic over whatever, they're all different and opinions are like...you know.

http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?t=27879 <----Great place to start.

Pic a mic that sounds the best to you and go with it. Chances are no one other than you will hear a difference in the end result.
 
NoxNoctus said:
There's no "perfect mic", a lot of people prefer the NTG-1 over the NTG-2 or 3, the 897 over the 875, VideoMic over whatever, they're all different and opinions are like...you know.

http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?t=27879 <----Great place to start.

Pic a mic that sounds the best to you and go with it. Chances are no one other than you will hear a difference in the end result.
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That's what I'm thinking too, but for the record, what mic is your pick?
 
puredrifting said:
I have not tested the NTG-2 but I did test the NTG-3 and it is one of the best values on the market. It sounds like a better version of the Sennheiser 416 for a lot less money.

The Audio Technica AT-875R is the best cheap mic on the market. I have one, use it all of the time and am very happy with the sound, size and the cost was less than $200.00. I recorded samples with it here http://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/right_mic_brockett.html

AT-897 does nothing for me. It is not a bad mic, but I feel that the 875R is more practical (it is designed as an

Dan
Click to expand...

Great test Dan Thanks.
Anything else that comes close to the AT 875 in that price range? I've heard mixed reviews on the Rode NTG-2. Any experience with one?
 
The NTG-1/2 are very good budget mics. The complaints come mostly from people going straight into an H4n which doesn't seem to have enough gain in some situations. (And, frankly, a lot of people buying budget-level mics have absolutely no idea how to use them.)
 
JordanBlock said:
The NTG-1/2 are very good budget mics. The complaints come mostly from people going straight into an H4n which doesn't seem to have enough gain in some situations. (And, frankly, a lot of people buying budget-level mics have absolutely no idea how to use them.)
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Can the NTG 2 go straight into a 550D, 60D, 5D? I know it's not the best way to go but slating and post syncing isn't the most efficient strategy for me either.
For example, I shot 100gigs of files Monday and Tuesday with about 600 separate clips. I had to shoot alone so slating every shot would have been impossible. There is no way I would want to post sync all that anyway.
I used my Sony Studio Lav on the end of a poll and the results were acceptable plugged into the camera. Some of it sounds very good.
The camera audio isn't the best I know, but the HD picture quality, portability, stealth nature and low daily cost of a DSLR can't be beat, even with it's major audio deficiencies. I just need to find a shotgun to plug into the camera when I work alone which is more all the time. My Sony lav has plenty of gain and seems to match the camera quite well.
If I have shoot where audio is critical I use a Sony EX3 and all the audio gear and crew come with it.
 
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ROCKMORE said:
Can the NTG 2 go straight into a 550D, 60D, 5D? I know it's not the best way to go but slating and post syncing isn't the most efficient strategy for me either.
...
The camera audio isn't the best I know, but the HD picture quality, portability, stealth nature and low daily cost of a DSLR can't be beat, even with it's major audio deficiencies. I just need to find a shotgun to plug into the camera when I work alone which is more all the time. My Sony lav has plenty of gain and seems to match the camera quite well.
If I have shoot where audio is critical I use a Sony EX3 and all the audio gear and crew come with it.
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If you have to compromise on something, it is better to deliver inferior pictures with pristine audio than it is to deliver top-quality pictures with compromised audio. Sound carries the message - the images supplement it. Both are important to a finished video, of course, but if you have to choose between sound and picture, sound needs to have priority in the vast majority of situations. Think about it for a moment - if you lost the pictures from your child malnutrition conference shoot the other day, the mesage in the interviews would still come through and you could lay in stock images after the fact to put together a watchable program. If you lost the sound, all you have is a bunch of useless pictures of self-important people flapping their lips and your client's message is dead in the water to anyone who doesn't lip-read. As a photographer that can be a bitter pill to swallow as we tend to love beautiful images -- and I write as someone with an on-again / off-again passion for fine-arts photography for 40 years -- but them's the facts, the images just aren't the most critical part of a video.

I don't know for a fact if the output from the NTG-2 would be a good match to a DSLR input or not but I would expect it will probably work okay. I would seriously consider interposing a Juicedlink preamp/adapter to get more control over what you have using a plain adapter cable.
 
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Steve House said:
If you have to compromise on something, it is better to deliver inferior pictures with pristine audio
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I've been in advertising a long time, and I agree completely with your position on the message, but to suggest that delivering an inferior picture has anything to do with achieving better audio is misguided advice.

My question is quite simple/

What shotgun mic can I plug directly into the 550D?

I don't want to add more additional preamp hardware because this camera is very temporary, a few months more at best, and the next camera may require something different.
 
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ROCKMORE said:
I've been in advertising a long time, and I agree completely with your position on the message, but to suggest that delivering an inferior picture has anything to do with achieving better audio is misguided advice.
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No, of course it doesn't. But if you have a limited budget you can't buy everything you might want and so you have to make a decision ... do I spend the money I do have on getting a better pictures or on getting better audio. If you have $1500 to spend, which will help you deliver the better program ... a $500 lens and a $1000 audio setup or a $1000 lens and a $500 audio setup? I would suggest the former is the preferred deployment of limited resources.
I don't want to add more additional preamp hardware because this camera is very temporary, a few months more at best, and the next camera may require something different.
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A preamp such as the Juiced is going to be useful with ANY DLSR you use, until you get to the point in your work that a full-blown mixer is the better option. Even then, I own a Sound Devices 442 mixer but I still also have a 4-channel Juicedlink in my kit, just in case. No matter what mic you have, unless it's a consumer mic like the Rode Videomic with an unbalanced miniplug output, if you need to take a balanced mono XLR mic into an unbalanced stereo minijack input, you need a proper adapter and an active adapter like the Juiced does the best job of that. A Juicedlink that provides phantom power opens up a whole additional range of mic options for you and would be an appropriate choice to work with both your current camera and any new one you get no matter where your camera upgrade path takes you (unless you're upgrading to a full-blown professional video camera with balanced XLR line-level inputs.)
 
Points well taken.
I have a sudden buyer for my 550d tomorrow, so I hope to have a 60D by afternoon. The 550D was the first one on the shelf in March and on the way out 10 months later. That's the main reason I'm very conservative in collecting new gear.
I just buy what I need as I need it. Most projects I rent a Sony EX3 with support, an audio package, mixer, monitor, laptop and assistant for $110 a day, so when a client is paying, as my conference client was not, I go that route.
The Canon is replacing the Sony EX3 rapidly though. I used the 550D as a B camera in March 2010, but my clients are so impressed with the Image that it does better than 80% of the workload in Dec 2010.
 
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