Which Mic?

Artificial

Artificial

I'm looking to pick up an external mic for my Nikon D5100. I've narrowed it down to the Pro-24CM and the ECZ-990. Both are about the same price $60 and $69. Both have the same review rating. Almost nothing, except their physical aspects sets them apart from what I can see.

From what I can tell, the biggest difference is the size/shape. The Pro-24CM is shorter(4.5" vs 6") and sits a little lower, so seems like it'd be better on a DSLR. But, the ECZ-990 weighs a little less and use a more convenient AAA battery - not that buying some LR44's in bulk would be hard. I feel like it'd be more fitting to use the Pro-24CM on a DSLR, unless the ECZ-990 has something going for it that I don't know about.
 
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Why do you want an external mic? What type of projects will you be doing?

Mounting a "better" mic on your camera will only marginally improve your audio. The Pro-24CM is a high impedence stereo mic - stereo mics are NOT recommended for capturing dialog; dialog is always captured in mono. And I'm normally not one to trash a vendor, but Azden gear has a terrible reputation.

Both units are aimed at consumers/hobbyists and should in no way be considered if you want to do serious filmmaking. To properly capture dialog the mic should be boomed.
 
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I'm really just looking for an improvement over the in camera mic. I'm just doing filmmaking as a hobby. It's not something I'm persuing as a career.

I may or may not start making shorts to enter into film festivals.
 
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More than twice that you want to spend, but I would recommend the Rode Video Mic (the VM Pro is about four times your budget) but will have future applications if you decide to upgrade to a better mic in the future.

If you must go really cheap you may want to consider the Audio-Technica ATR6550 if you will be capturing dialog; dialog is always captured in mono.

Just remember that you will get much better audio if you get the mic off of the camera and on to a boom-pole.
 
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The Rode Video Mic was the original mic I looked into, but couldn't justify spending that much right now.

I'm hoping for a decent(for me) pay check on the 22nd, and I've got something I'm trying to sell that should put $475 in my pocket. After all that, it might be in my budget.
 
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Artificial - I agree with AA - at $136, the original Rode Videomic is probably the best value for money self-powered mic for prosumers. Respectfully, though, I still like my $85 Azden SMX-10 a lot. Yes, it's an Azden, and yes, it's stereo, but I sometimes record music as well as dialogue and have gotten pretty good results.

If you do get a mono mic like the ATR-6550, you will need a $3.60 mono to stereo adapter to plug it into the stereo jack on your camera - otherwise, you'll have audio on only one channel.

Cheers and good luck,

Bill
 
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