Sennheiser ME66 Vs. 416

Chris MGS

Chris MGS

Active member
So I'm going to Colombia later this month to shoot a music documentary, and need a mic. My friend owns a 416 but won't lend it to me *sob*, so I need to shell out for something myself.

I am going to be shooting quite a bit of live music in (obviously) noisy environments. Will also be shooting the standard interviews, and all the usual documentary-style stuff. The mic will be mounted on top of the camera (recording straight into the XLR inputs), seeing as I'm the only crew member.

Sennheiser ME66 Vs. 416

Now, what i want to know is, is it really worth paying roughly double the price of an ME66 for a 416? Will the differences in sound quality, if any, really be that noticeable? If you recorded some music or an interview with both mics at the same time, and listened back to them one after the other on the same speakers/headphones, would you be able to hear any differences, and if so, what would they be?

Thanks.
 
If you're just going to mount the mic on top of the camera, then no, it's probably not going to be worth it.

When you use a boom, shockmount, windscreen, ect... that's when you're getting a high enough audio quality that the higher quality of the 416 will shine.

Although, here's a side by side comparison with samples to make your own choice...

http://www.dvinfo.net/articles/audio/tanaka2.php

EDIT: I've never ran an ME66 directly into camera before or recorded live music with it, so go with Matt's advice.
 
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The me66 will have trouble in many interiors and will most likely sound like pure crap for live music unless the music is acoustic and low key. The me66 blows levels on any modern cam easily. Even with a really good mixer, with really good limiters... it's hard to avoid blowing levels when using an me66... so just setting a level directly into the cam what do you expect? For live music? Pff... nope.

You'd be better off with a lot of other choices if you can't afford a 416 but would still like to be in the price-range of an me66... for close to that same price you can get a Rode NTG-3 (street price... call Guy from DVestore... a sponsor of this site also BTW)... and if you want to go cheap you will still most likely get better results then an me66... even with an NTG-2. And with either of these mics you have much greater odds of success in running them directly into the cam if you can't keep an eagle eye on the levels.
 
Basically, what Matt said with a couple of additions - first I will say it straight up - the ME66 is an overpriced piece of crap.

Second, look for a used 416. The 416 is still considered an industry standard and is pretty bullet-proof. You can pick up a used, t-powered 416 for about half of an ME66. (And, don't be afraid of t-power - there are lots of low-priced adapters out there (PSC makes a good one).

Phil
 
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