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Small camera mic


Patrick Tresch

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Hello,

I'm looking for a camera mic for DSLR type of input (stereo minijack mic level) for an A7s2 or Weapon basic module. I wonder how the new Sennheiser MKE440 sounds. I'm looking for maximum voice clarity and background rejection. Did anybody test it at cinegear? What do you think about the sound quality on the sample showed in the review? Thanks for any input.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/explora/audio/hands-review/field-sennheiser-mke-440-shotgun-microphone

Pat

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Those small plastic Senn shotguns are about as good as that kind of thing gets--I've done a fair amount of post with audio from them and they sound ok.  You know the rules--quiet BG, get close, don't let the audio clip, keep the speaker in front of the mic, so you'll be good with one.  They seem like the best compromise of sound vs/size+weight on a small cam, esp something like A7.

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1 hour ago, Olle Sjostrom said:

What about Ambient Tinymike?

I have one of those, along with an InVision mount, two windshields, etc....won it at a RAMPS/JWS NAB dinner raffle a couple years ago (thanks Ambient!). Light, short, good collection of accessories (including several different XLR, 3.5, and other adapter cables):

http://ambient.de/en/product/atm216/

It's pretty nice, I'd say. Working from memory, I think it sounds better than the other cheap on-camera mics I've come across...though I currently mostly use it to slap on DSLRs and burritocams when the job calls for it. But it's not stereo.

I guess the alternative to the little Sennheiser 440 stereo camera mic would be something from Rode, like one of their Stereo VideoMics:

http://www.rode.com/microphones/video

No first-hand experience with those two models, but I've worked with audio from some other cheapish Rode mics and they aren't terrible for the money... 

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I think the stereo MKE-440 was announced at NAB in April and is scheduled to first ship about now. Don't think it's out in the wild yet. Here's the press release:

http://en-us.sennheiser.com/news-best-video-sound-for-your-dslr

And a picture:

square_list_zoom_MKE_440-sennheiser-600-

 

The Sennheiser MKE400 has been around for a while, and sounds OK for what it is (as others here say), but it's mono... I'll guess the 440 basically takes combines two 400s.

Patrick, are you totally set on a stereo mic, or would a mono mic work for you?

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To shoot a docu, I've used a MS mic from Audio-Technica AT835ST. More than using the stereo capabilities of the mic, I found it very interesting to have an hyper cardio and a large eight in one mic, as the editor can choose if he wants to take the sound from what is in the front of the camera or play with what is out of frame. But this mic is a bit to cumbersome and needs 48v power.

I don't have any idea if it would be better stereo or mono. But stereo gives me the impression that the speach gets clearer than a mono one due to what happens in the brain and how sounds are "decripted"... I'll rely on the sound engeneer to get a nice stereo sound though.

Pat

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I have some post experience with this style of mic and the diff between the two wasn't enough to compensate for the hassle of having a bigger mic on the camera (and it gives producers the idea that this is somehow all the audio recording they need).  The little shotguns are the best bang for buck for my money--small, light, easy to pull off the cam if it is in the way, small enough to mount up on a monitor if you have one in the camera shoe, decent mono audio.  The side-mic always had more wind and handling and crew etc noise--I never used it.

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MS = 'mid' 'side' = cardioid (or similar) microphone for the mid/central (and mono) signal and a figure of '8' polar pattern microphone for the side (wide) signal = left right stereo signal(s?) when extrapolated through a matrix (M+S = L, M-S = R). *when the MS signals are recorded discretely.  

 

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