Recommendation for Microphone

j1clark@ucsd.edu said:
I've seen the videographer 'redo' the vows for a couple of weddings...



If you do, you can hope the couple separates by the time the 'proofs' are ready...

Over the years that the Wife was doing weddings, some number of couples, maybe about 5 or 6, had separated by the time the proof books were done... which for the Wife did take a 'long time', like 1-2 months, since she typically shot about 1500 images... but anyway... I think the quickest separation was about 2 weeks... these sorts of people should have gone to Las Vegas...
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Good reason that event professionals get the money before the ceremony!!
 
Dan said,

"Personally, I'd do away with Videomics... as I think they sound like crap. As I said, the $20 lav I have sounds better than the videomic, which is saying something considering the popularity of the Videomic."

Just because the videomic is popular doesn't mean it it will produce good audio. Anytime you have a mic designed for on cam mounting, it is highly suspect. That said, if I didn't have any xlr power, and I didn't have any much money, and I was shooting amateur stuff on the hoof, alone, it would be high on my list.

Even if you are satisfied with the gear you are recommending, a great deal of the OPs success will be measured by how well that equipment is used in a challenging circumstance.

You have put your $20 lav up as a viable alternative to much more expensive gear, and that is fine, it is an economy alternative. But if you really think it can compare in quality to pro level gear, please do post up some samples so we can understand why we've been wasting money. I'm not trying to be snarky, if there are less expensive alternatives, all of us would like to know, but the proof is in the ears of the beholder. I suppose for $20 I could just take a flyer and buy one......but I suspect I'd rather go out to lunch.

Grant
 
j1clark@ucsd.edu said:
...

Over the years that the Wife was doing weddings, some number of couples, maybe about 5 or 6, had separated by the time the proof books were done... which for the Wife did take a 'long time', like 1-2 months, since she typically shot about 1500 images... but anyway... I think the quickest separation was about 2 weeks... these sorts of people should have gone to Las Vegas...
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" Aww come on, it'll be a fun weekend and we can have it annulled on Monday!"
 
ggrantly said:
Neither of those recommendations inspire great confidence for high quality audio. Keeping a perspective between amateur and pro work, I don't think anyone here is ripping you for using or liking inexpensive gear, but the sennheiser me2 is not very wonderful and by most professional standards is considered a sacrificial anode in a kit. I have kept mine around in case I need a mic to put in harms way. The videomic is great for what it is; a camera mounted mic for improving the onboard mic of a dslr or handycam, but a camera mounted mic in this case isn't going to cut much ice.

The OP is showing up with $7000 worth of cams + lenses and probably needs decent audio. A good rule of thumb for a pro production is the value of the audio gear should equal the value of the cam. The OP might not want to spend that much for this one time deal, but if he hired a sound guy, he would likely show up with at least that much value in his bag. You might argue with that, but again and again folks have appeared on this section and said "hey I just blew my budget on a great cam, now I need great fantastic pro audio for a couple of bones". Keep a perspective to the production values realizing that crap audio will kill all the hard work put into great visuals.

Doing a beach shoot and capturing vows will be no easy task if you factor in breeze, ocean noise, and everything else that happens in a public space. And the OP indicated he didn't necessarily want the cheapo solution. At the very least, the OP needs a dedicated sound person, and equipment that can handle the circumstances, in particular, wind protection and good monitoring.

Grant
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Thanks for the advice!!!! The wedding will be an elopement for my brother. So I shoot for free. Still I don't want to have crap audio that's why I didn't want to have the "cheap" solution. He is my brother.... I hope you understand me now.
 
Steve House said:
Believe me, the skill-set required of a videographer is quite different from that of a still photographer. The two are separate art forms that just happen to have the common feature of working with lenses and sensors. And on e of those differences is that with stills everything ng revolves around the image. With video, the image itself is secondary to the motion and the sound. An audience will forgive less than perfect picture far more readily than they'll forgive less than perfect audio.
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I am learning a lot!!!! THANKS!!!!
 
This will be a free wedding for my brother. That's why I don't have a budget for a sound guy. Still I want him to have great memories for the future. He and his fiancee are eloping from Europe to Key West..
 
I totally appreciate that you are doing this for free for your brother, however that is not going to change the physics of recording good audio.

your main roadblocks are :

1. high wind, which as you know will ruin ANY audio on ANY microphone that does not have appropriate wind protection.
2. DSLRs suck at audio for many reasons that are extremely well covered in the forum here.
3. no one to monitor or maintain decent recording levels in a very dynamic situation.

here is a suggestion.

you are a professional photographer, trade your services with a videographer who has experience with sound or a sound guy.

It IS your brothers BIG day, why not honor it with this as a gift. as I am sure with your photography you know the saying "Anything worth doing is worth doing well".

if all this fails then I would rent (2) wireless units with lavs and wind protection, and a portable recorder to record these into and then mic the groom and the pastor. that is probably your best shot for a one man band.

Good luck
 
Years ago we used to tell people that putting an expensive camera on a cheap tripod was bad, but some people weren't convinced, and despite having been told, continued to use these supports, often still getting great results. One day, they buy a new, better tripod and head and kick themselves for not doing it before, because the difference is very obvious. I have to say that sound doesn't quite seem to do the same thing. When you buy a new mic, it sounds different, but often you can't say better or worse - just different. You get to know your own kit, and can then use the most appropriate microphone for the job in hand. Sometimes this may be the cheapest mic. When I first started buying radio systems, one popular make charged around £60 for a replacement omni lav mic. At this time, an MKE-2 cost 4 times as much, and I only used them on well paying jobs. They sounded a bit crisper, and were smaller - but dropping it down the toilet - sadly a common thing for theatre - became expensive if the hirer could not afford the replacements. I've found that the element in the cheap lav mic is available as a spare from a company I now buy mics from - and the postage cost is more than the cost of the new element to repair them! Many of the non-electret types used in the larger mics are sold by one or two factories in China and again are not very expensive, but can be found in mics costing wildly different amounts of money. A different preamp injects a different sound to the mic, even though much is identical inside. Labour costs in the country of origin probably cost many times the component cost. I guess the point I'm making is that you cannot assume expensive mics perform better. They will sound and perform differently. In a blind test, I wonder who could accurately identify a make or even better, a model - when they are listening to an unfamiliar sound source?

What I am absolutely sold on is that a cheap mic in the right place will work better than an expensive one in the wrong place. If I have time next week and the weather is good, I may go out and do some tests. I could do some radio comparisons with cheap v expensive lavs, and then do some on camera tests between say, and omni, cardioid, hyper-cardioid and shotgun. If I pick a location with wind and noise, maybe this would be interesting. From experience, the trickiest location near here is on the sea shore where the waves crash onto the stoney beach. I have a selection of shotguns from cheap to expensive. I could also try some handhelds cardiod, hyper and maybe an omni. I'm thinking making the idea to hear me talking to camera using on camera mic position, a close in shotgun and handheld. I doubt we'd hear cost type quality differences but so many people lately have been thinking of using oncamera mics in tricky locations, that the results could be useful to beginners. If I can dig it out, I've even got a proper commentators lip mic somewhere. I don't want to waste my time - but if it's a dry day, it could be something to watch to see differences.

I could put an on camera shotgun up against a lav, or other combinations to allow the differences to be heard. The sound of waves on a shingle beach is pretty loud and very annoying. Couple this with a bit of wind noise and it could be a rotten environment to try to record speech. Worth it?
 
If you are renting wireless systems, make sure you know how to properly set and operate them, they ARE NOT fool-proof oras easy as, 'plug-in and roll-sound'.
I agree that the audio tracks on DSLRs should be avoided, other than for sync reference purposes.
 
recordingwhiz said:
I totally appreciate that you are doing this for free for your brother, however that is not going to change the physics of recording good audio.

your main roadblocks are :

1. high wind, which as you know will ruin ANY audio on ANY microphone that does not have appropriate wind protection.
2. DSLRs suck at audio for many reasons that are extremely well covered in the forum here.
3. no one to monitor or maintain decent recording levels in a very dynamic situation.

here is a suggestion.

you are a professional photographer, trade your services with a videographer who has experience with sound or a sound guy.

It IS your brothers BIG day, why not honor it with this as a gift. as I am sure with your photography you know the saying "Anything worth doing is worth doing well".

if all this fails then I would rent (2) wireless units with lavs and wind protection, and a portable recorder to record these into and then mic the groom and the pastor. that is probably your best shot for a one man band.

Good luck
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Thanks for the good advice!
 
Rick R said:
If you are renting wireless systems, make sure you know how to properly set and operate them, they ARE NOT fool-proof oras easy as, 'plug-in and roll-sound'.
I agree that the audio tracks on DSLRs should be avoided, other than for sync reference purposes.
Click to expand...

Thanks, I totally agree!
 
I am thinking putting a Zoom H4N on the groom. What kind of microphone do you recommend to use it with?
 
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