ZOOM H4N onboard stereo mics

[ryanff]

i'm shooting some low-budget doc style interviews in haiti next week, and am turning my friend into a sound recordist.
i'm using a zoom h4n, and am considering leaving behind my nt2 / boom for ease of use / travel.
i haven't relied on the onboard h4n mics before. does anyone have experience shooting like this? do you think this will suffice? we definitely don't need anything pro quality.

thanks

 

[Steve House]

i'm shooting some low-budget doc style interviews in haiti next week, and am turning my friend into a sound recordist.
i'm using a zoom h4n, and am considering leaving behind my nt2 / boom for ease of use / travel.
i haven't relied on the onboard h4n mics before. does anyone have experience shooting like this? do you think this will suffice? we definitely don't need anything pro quality.

thanks

If you can always hold the recorder so it's no more than 6 inches away from anyone speaking, it'll work. Otherwise, fugeddaboutit. Interviews are all about the sound and the pictures are largely irrelevant. If you have to leave anything at home in order to expedite travel, you'd be better off leaving the video camera behind and taking a pocket-sized point-and-shoot still camera instead, adding the still photos you take to the audio to make a slide show in post. You'll have a more watchable production.

If you don't need "pro quality," whatever that is, why bother with the project at all? You're competing for the audience's attention with other productions on the same or similar topics that ARE done to pro quality. Unless you are in the same league, no one's going to pay any attention to your message.

 

[ryanff]

thanks steve-- certainly i agree that sound is key for interview footage. really i was looking for someone with field experience using the h4n to give me some sort of idea how close we'd have to be to the subject to get acceptable audio.
we'll be shooting tight-- but i think 6 inches is probably pushing it.
so thanks again. sounds like i better get working on my friend's boom op skills.

 

[Noiz2]

It's a pair of cardioids so I think 6 inches is probably a bit extreme, probably a foot or so would still be in the zone. But you need to point one of the capsules actually at your subject so your setup is going to look strange.