Stereo microphone query

PeterD-2009PeterD-2009 Registered Users Posts: 618 Major grins
edited November 24, 2010 in Accessories
Can anyone please help me to select a directional microphone to fit on the flash shoe of my E5 dslr? Not sure if it is posible, but I would like to record wildlife on video from about 100' away.
I would be interested in any comments or suggestions. I had a look on the internet but it always pays to listen to the advice from the forum. I could easily be suckered into making a mistake:help.

Thank you.
Cheers

Peter

http://www.imageinuk.com

Comments

  • divamumdivamum Registered Users Posts: 9,021 Major grins
    edited November 21, 2010
    Call Chris at www.soundprofessionals.com - very knowledgeable and super helpful. Prices are extremely competitive.
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  • Dan7312Dan7312 Registered Users Posts: 1,330 Major grins
    edited November 21, 2010
    I followed divamum's advice earlier this year for a shoe mount mic' and got incredibly good advice, pricing, and service from Chris.
    divamum wrote: »
    Call Chris at www.soundprofessionals.com - very knowledgeable and super helpful. Prices are extremely competitive.
    Dan

    http://www.danalphotos.com

    http://www.pluralsight.com

    http://twitter.com/d114
  • PeterD-2009PeterD-2009 Registered Users Posts: 618 Major grins
    edited November 21, 2010
    divamum wrote: »
    Call Chris at www.soundprofessionals.com - very knowledgeable and super helpful. Prices are extremely competitive.
    Dan7312 wrote: »
    I followed divamum's advice earlier this year for a shoe mount mic' and got incredibly good advice, pricing, and service from Chris.

    Thank you both. I have sent a message to Christhumb.gif. I shall let you know how I get on.
    Cheers

    Peter

    http://www.imageinuk.com
  • ziggy53ziggy53 Super Moderators Posts: 24,133 moderator
    edited November 21, 2010
    I moved this to Accessories since it is not directly a camera product.

    For a 100 foot distance I would not worry about "stereo" sound. You would need 2 microphones separated by a good distance to provide much stereo separation. There are some "binaural" systems that do convey the proper auditory timing delays necessary for hinting at direction, but mostly you should be concerned with sound fidelity and sound quality.

    For loud animal behavior at 100 feet I think that a Supercardioid design, specifically a long shotgun microphone, would be a good bet. For that distance you do want extremely low noise so a microphone with XLR output pumped into a low-noise pre-amplifier and then adapted to your camera's inputs should work nicely.

    I am not aware of your camera's sound properties so you additionally might need to saturate one of the strereo channels in order to effectively cancel any in-camera audio gain.

    For "normal" animal behavior, which is not very loud, it is best to plant wireless microphones ahead of time, and then choose the microphone closest to the animal being observed. This obviously works best at watering and feeding locations where the animals congregate.

    A parabolic microphone is sometimes used for distance audio pickup but I am not pleased with the general sound quality.

    Altogether you may be looking at several hundreds to several thousands of dollars to cover multiple sound scenarios.

    As a start, I suggest looking at a short shotgun microphone and using a wildlife "blind" to get you closer to the animals (if that is safe). You may still need a device to saturate one of the sound channels unless your camera allows manual audio gain, but the entry cost is pretty reasonable.

    Candidate microphones might include:

    Sennheiser MKE300
    Sennheiser MKE400
    Rode VideoMic

    For a host camera with AGC and no manual level control you may also need:

    JuicedLink JL-DT454

    To create a L-R audio direction in post many video editing software applications now have an audio mixer with left-right volume so that you can add that directionality pretty easily. Some even have 5.1 audio mixing in post so you can have left-right and front-back control.
    ziggy53
    Moderator of the Cameras and Accessories forums
  • divamumdivamum Registered Users Posts: 9,021 Major grins
    edited November 21, 2010
    PeterD-2009 wrote: »
    Thank you both. I have sent a message to Christhumb.gif. I shall let you know how I get on.

    You may find you have to call him (I see you're UK, though - maybe Skype if it's available?), but it will be worth it - the man will jump through hoops to help if he possibly can. He's kind of the Helen Oster of the sound-gear world... thumb.gif
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  • PeterD-2009PeterD-2009 Registered Users Posts: 618 Major grins
    edited November 21, 2010
    ziggy53 wrote: »
    I moved this to Accessories since it is not directly a camera product.

    For a 100 foot distance I would not worry about "stereo" sound. You would need 2 microphones separated by a good distance to provide much stereo separation. There are some "binaural" systems that do convey the proper auditory timing delays necessary for hinting at direction, but mostly you should be concerned with sound fidelity and sound quality.

    For loud animal behavior at 100 feet I think that a Supercardioid design, specifically a long shotgun microphone, would be a good bet. For that distance you do want extremely low noise so a microphone with XLR output pumped into a low-noise pre-amplifier and then adapted to your camera's inputs should work nicely.

    I am not aware of your camera's sound properties so you additionally might need to saturate one of the strereo channels in order to effectively cancel any in-camera audio gain.

    For "normal" animal behavior, which is not very loud, it is best to plant wireless microphones ahead of time, and then choose the microphone closest to the animal being observed. This obviously works best at watering and feeding locations where the animals congregate.

    A parabolic microphone is sometimes used for distance audio pickup but I am not pleased with the general sound quality.

    Altogether you may be looking at several hundreds to several thousands of dollars to cover multiple sound scenarios.

    As a start, I suggest looking at a short shotgun microphone and using a wildlife "blind" to get you closer to the animals (if that is safe). You may still need a device to saturate one of the sound channels unless your camera allows manual audio gain, but the entry cost is pretty reasonable.

    Candidate microphones might include:

    Sennheiser MKE300
    Sennheiser MKE400
    Rode VideoMic

    For a host camera with AGC and no manual level control you may also need:

    JuicedLink JL-DT454

    To create a L-R audio direction in post many video editing software applications now have an audio mixer with left-right volume so that you can add that directionality pretty easily. Some even have 5.1 audio mixing in post so you can have left-right and front-back control.

    Thank you Ziggy for this very full and helpful advicethumb.gif. From what you say, I think the lower cost (entry level) solutions is what I should be looking for. I shall also check out the camera's audio spec before ordering anything. I know there is a quick way of altering the mic level on the camera (found it by accident whilst exploring the functions).

    Thanks also for tranferring this thread to here.
    Cheers

    Peter

    http://www.imageinuk.com
  • PeterD-2009PeterD-2009 Registered Users Posts: 618 Major grins
    edited November 21, 2010
    divamum wrote: »
    You may find you have to call him (I see you're UK, though - maybe Skype if it's available?), but it will be worth it - the man will jump through hoops to help if he possibly can. He's kind of the Helen Oster of the sound-gear world... thumb.gif

    Thanks again. When I sent the email to him, I got a reply on the site that he would get back to me.
    Cheers

    Peter

    http://www.imageinuk.com
  • ziggy53ziggy53 Super Moderators Posts: 24,133 moderator
    edited November 21, 2010
    divamum wrote: »
    You may find you have to call him (I see you're UK, though - maybe Skype if it's available?), but it will be worth it - the man will jump through hoops to help if he possibly can. He's kind of the Helen Oster of the sound-gear world... thumb.gif

    I would like to add Henry Posner at B&H to any list of helpful people. He and Helen are both greatly appreciated here at the Digital Grin.

    I believe that both B&H and Adorama have professional sound departments and it might be a good idea to ask them for advice as well.
    ziggy53
    Moderator of the Cameras and Accessories forums
  • divamumdivamum Registered Users Posts: 9,021 Major grins
    edited November 21, 2010
    Btw, my guess is that you will want a mic with some kind of "shotgun" pickup pattern, which is extremely directional, but since I only ever use omnis (and occasionally cardioids) for the things I do, I'll let somebody more expert takeover beyond that!!
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  • henryphenryp Registered Users Posts: 144 Major grins
    edited November 22, 2010
    ziggy53 wrote: »
    I would like to add Henry Posner at B&H to any list of helpful people.

    Thank you. This is very kind. Our HDSLR Guide might prove helpful.
    Henry Posner
    B&H Photo-Video
  • JimKarczewskiJimKarczewski Registered Users Posts: 969 Major grins
    edited November 22, 2010
    The Sennheiser MKE400 is a nice shotgun mic. My only gripe is accidentally leaving it on and having to make sure I always carry plenty of AAA batteries to power it. Other than that it's great for shooting. Only other product I use for audio is the Zoom H4N but that is a completely off camera solution, but nice if you do other things like bands/events/etc.
    Jim Karczewski - http://www.jimkarczewski.com
  • PeterD-2009PeterD-2009 Registered Users Posts: 618 Major grins
    edited November 24, 2010
    Thanks for all the help I received
    I am sorry its been a while since I replied to this thread but I have not had time to do anything but work on other things.
    ALL who have contributed here have helped me to make my mind up, this includes Chris (SoundProfessionals) and Henry (B&H). When going out to buy something like this, without experience, it is easy to make a mistake.
    I have decided on the Sennheiser MKE400. I am in the UK and therefore very wary about costs and duty when importing items from overseas. I have managed to locate one locally which avoids the added costs.
    Thank you again. It has been a good and valuable experience looking for support on here.thumb.gif
    Cheers

    Peter

    http://www.imageinuk.com
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