Questions about HD prosumer cameras and mics

L

LittleEarthquakes

Should I be able to figure out how the cast and crew can come up with the money to purchase a camera...is the camera brand shotgun mic going to be a decent shotgun? or will a nicer shotgun need to be purchased in addition to a boom mic?

one more question...when using a boom in addition to a shotgun...does the camera record two audio tracks, or does it mix the two mics inputs? <---I know that may sound like a stupid question, but audio is really my biggest concern at this moment as i'll be doing much of the editing for the creator and director/producer of this web series.
 
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Just to clarify: Some people are confused about a "boom mic". The
"boom" is a piece of equipment - most often a pole of some kind -
that the microphone is attached to.

The on board mic on most cameras is pretty good. However, the
further away the mic is from the actors, the higher the volume needs
to be. The higher the volume, the more “noise” you get. Your goal is
to have a very high signal to noise ratio - more signal (the dialogue)
less noise (the background). Even a very good, expensive Sennheiser
mounted on the camera will pick up a lot of background ambiance
because it’s far away from the actors.

You don't want to use two microphones - on on the camera and one
on your boom pole. Only one mic is needed.
 
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I guess the thing I was a little confused on isn't so much boom...when I say boom mic I just figure that everyone knows I mean the mic one would use on a boom pole...what i've been confused about is that shotgun mics are being used on boom poles...I've been a part of some things that have used booms and the mic (though it appears to be old) does not look like the current shotgun mics...due to the difference in design (again I'm talking about studio quality by several year ago...I believe) I wasn't sure if shotguns were good for boom poles or not.

could someone give me a bit of an idea about the following mics (which you may have used or come accross, and think would be the best choice).....

Sennheiser:
ME 67
ME 66
MD 42

Which one of these mics would be the best choice? There will be indoor and outdoor shoots. Or, is there a different mic that would do the best job for the $500 or under range?
 
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I'm sure you aren't confused about the difference. I didn't
mean to imply that - my intent was to clarify for others
reading who might be confused.

Either the ME 67 or 66 will be fine. They are excellent mics.
The MD 42 is not a shotgun mic, it's a reporters mic so it's
not going to work well at all on a boom pole. It's designed to
be held very close to the speakers mouth - like a news
reporter does when interviewing people.

The three main manufacturers of shotgun mics are Sennheiser,
Audio-Technica and Azden. In my opinion a mic is an investment.
It will last longer than your camera - why skimp?
 
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Directorik...I'm sorry I didn't mean to seem like I thought you were inplying anything...just that I had probably gotten my wires crossed as to the type of mic that goes on the end of the pole. lol

sorry I've been trying to get caught up today on some screen writing that i'm doing for someone who has already pitched the idea, and well it now all rests on my shoulders to proove that I can turn out a script that's as good as their idea and better than whatever they pitched. lol so i'm a little stressed tonight. haha

anyway...I believe you when you say that the mic will be an investment that will certainly last longer than the camera so I have a couple other questions...

do you think that the longer life span of a mic would warrent going with something higher end? If so, what's your best suggestion?

two more questions...where would I find a good boot (is that the correct term for the area on a cam for attachments?) attachment that can give a camera that has only the little sterio type jack an xlr jack?

and the last question...we ave the ability to come by lights, so....

if we so for a nice mic and an xlr attachment, we're going to need a new camera as the one that they have now does not have one...

now we want HD and we want widescreen...could you please tell me if you've by any chance handled a Sony HDR-SR12 (i'll have to upgrade my vegas for this as I was the one eected to do editing)? or if not can you take a look at it and tell me if it looks like something that could turn out very good quality footage in HD widescreen mode? Or do you know of a camera in the same price range that at least has some form of mic jack so that an XLR attachment can be added that also shoots HD widescreen?

This is for a very low budget web series, but as many of us have taken a look at some of the better web series out there we want our quality of picture and sound to stand up well to the others...because even the absolute best ones would not stand up as well if their picture was crappy or sound awful.

It would be nice to go with something a bit higher end...more prosumer than handycam but at this point I suspect I can pitch something in the $3000 or so (hopefully less) range much better than the $6000 range. lol especially when i'm pitching this to unpaid cast and crew, who i'm hoping might be able to caugh up a little per person (since we're all excited about the epi. scripts, etc) to get this done.

All information you have given (and I hope you'll continue to help me out with) is very greatly appreciated! I'm swimming in stress (day job, writing, life and lack of money) right now and we have a production meeting tomorrow night. lol
 
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do you think that the longer life span of a mic would warrent going with something higher end? If so, what's your best suggestion?
Click to expand...
Yes. A good mic is an investment that will last longer than the
camera you are using. Either the Sennheiser ME66 or ME67 will be
fine. They are excellent mics.
where would I find a good boot (is that the correct term for the area on a cam for attachments?) attachment that can give a camera that has only the little sterio type jack an xlr jack?
Click to expand...
Any Radio Shack will have adaptors. Even Best Buy might carry them.

I’ve used the Sony HDR-SR12. It’s a nice, very small camera that
has both a mic and headphone jack. I found handling difficult
because of it’s size anf the placement of the mic jack, but under
the proper lighting the image quality was fine. Especially for a
web series.
 
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