gardog541

was wonders if anybody had experience with a shotgun mic for recording video from a dslr.

bsprague Loc: Lacey, WA, USA

Some.

Peterff Loc: O'er The Hills and Far Away, in Themyscira.

Yep. It works pretty well.

GibsonGuy Loc: Danbury, CT

Look into the Rode Videomic Pro unit, it uses a 9V battery and mounts on you flash mount. Does a great job.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

I have the Rode, which I use with a camcorder. It makes a big difference, especially if the subject is fairly far away. Of course, you have to remember to turn it on. I have been known to forget.

GibsonGuy Loc: Danbury, CT

As have I!

Reinaldokool Loc: San Rafael, CA

Absolutely. But they are not free. The cheap Rodes are better than the builtin mics but not really shotguns. I have three. A cheap ($100) Rode. A Sennheiser ($300) and a more expensive Rode ($250) Only the Sennheiser is truly a shotgun. The pricier Rode is somewhat sharper than a regular cardiod.

If you want to try one, I'll ship you the cheap Rode for $50 + shipping. It will be far better than your camera mic. It has a pretty good shock-mount and gets rid of most ambient and camera noise. I never use it because of the Sennheiser. Then you can see if you want to spend big bucks for a Sennheiser. (I love my Sony camera, but Sony mics are junk.)

gvarner Loc: Central Oregon Coast

I've read that an external mic is needed to reduce extraneous sound when using the camera's mic. I don't do video but the advise makes sense.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Not sure of the model number, but my Rode (2011) was $160.

aellman Loc: Boston MA

Depends what you are shooting. If you want to pick up a lot of ambient sound, a shotgun is great. (No shotgun is a perfect gun-like device.) If you want to pick up one person's voice, an interview for example, you'll need a lavalier or boom mic. Lavaliers can be had inexpensively in wired and wireless models. Use it as shown. Note that the wire runs inside clothing. >Alan

SSam Loc: Sierra Vista, AZ

I've read that no consumer or pro-sumer camcorder has a noise free Mic pre-amp. So I use my external Rode camera mounted Mic for syncing in post processing. With surveys showing that the audio is at least as valuable as the video in making watchable video, I use external Mics plugged into my Zoom H4. Yes it is more work.

GibsonGuy Loc: Danbury, CT

If you have the opportunity to take your audio feed from "the board" it is always a better choice.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

I have a couple of Sony wireless mics similar to that. They work fine.

MichaelL

I have used the Rode Videomic Pros on my videos for a number of years with no problems and reliable performance (provided you turn them on as an earlier poster said). After using the internal mic on my D7100 for a performance (I thought "how bad could it be?") I bought one dedicated for the DSLR. As another poster said above, not a true shotgun but great performer that catches all of the sound. I record high school marching bands so shotgun is not as important to me as overall performance, blocking wind noise and pick up the field rather than the crowd.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Yes.

A "shotgun" mic is a hypercardioid mic with an especially tight pattern of sensitivity. About 80% of what it picks up comes from directly in front, and close to 20% comes from directly BEHIND the mic.

These mics only work WELL when kept within three feet of humans speaking normally. It's best to put them on boom poles above the subject, and point them down at the subject, especially when the ground or flooring is highly absorptive (grass or carpet).

Most pro audio folks will scoff quietly when they see a shotgun used on a camera shoe. Besides picking up noises made by the photographer, on-camera shotgun mics pick up noise behind both the photographer AND the subject. And because sound dissipates with the inverse of the square of the subject distance (1/D^2), the signal to noise ratio is awful at distances greater than three feet. There is only 1% of the sound at ten feet as there is at one foot from the source!

Indoors, pointing the mic down gets the sound source. Ceilings are usually not sound sources, so that's good. Floors are often absorptive, which is good, too.

Outdoors, pointing the mic down gets the sound source, and the ground typically absorbs noise better than carpet. But if aircraft fly overhead, behind the rear of the mic, that's a problem! Keep the back of the mic pointed opposite the plane...

Use a "dead cat" furry windscreen over a shotgun used outdoors. If the mic has a built-in "high pass" filter, turn it on to roll off (reduce) the low frequency wind noises.

I hope that helps... You can spend good money on a shotgun mic, but if you use it improperly, it sounds only a little better than in-camera mics.

Often, when you just want to record an interview, you can use a $30 Omni-directional lapel mic with better results (compared to a camera-mounted shotgun mic).