Video questions, D500
I'm looking for advice on external microphones and video recording using my D500 (with D7100 as backup). I'll be working in a very windy environment.
Any recommendations for equipment? I don't want to say "price is no object" but on the other hand, am willing to spend a bit more for quality. Compactness is desirable, too ... any good hot-shoe mountable options available?
Also, any recommended websites for video technique?
Apologies if this is the wrong forum to ask about video. Appreciate your thoughts!
There is a video forum here on UHH but nobody uses it!
Probably the most commonly used mic on DSLRs is the Rode VideoMic. It feeds the same signal to both channels and has the right connection. There is a stereo version. It includes a windscreen.
On camera mics are very limited. The are good a recording the environmental sounds. The only way to get good audio is to get a mic close to the speaking/singing subject. That's why you see so many videos and shows with mics clipped to people.
Wind noise is nearly impossible to eliminate. All the on camera mics have accessory foam or furry covers that will be as good as it gets.
The best creative guidance I've found is a book and website by Steve Stockman. "How to Shoot Video That Doesn't Suck". You will learn to not wiggle, pan or zoom unless absolutely necessary. You will learn that we've been trained by Hollywood and TV to watch in three to five second clips, edited together.
Tell my more about your shooting environment, subject and why there is so much wind.
Whatever mics you get, go to a fabric store and get some faux-fur for wind screening. Those foam wind screens just don't cut it. In this picture is a frame with two large diaphragm mics and a battery powered pre-amp. I can pick up the wind blowing through the trees with no rumble at all. I can also pick up a heart-beat from three feet away.
"two large diaphragm mics and a battery powered pre-amp."
Would you please post the brand and model numbers of the mics and pre-amp?
The mics are Behringer C-1 and the pre-amp is something I built myself. It uses five 9V and two AA batteries for the 48V phantom power and the plus and minus 18V for the amplifier. The design is built around the Texas Instruments INA217 IC.
Thanks Speenort.
My favorite use of video capabilities is long lense shooting of wildlife. The animals are so far away that there is no chance of any appropriate audio. My typical solution is to add in a music track in post.
Bill
Using the same home-made pre-amp I put two pencil mics into these felt-lined funnels for picking up distant sound. I'm still in the testing phase but so far indications are good. I isolated some bird-song that I couldn't even see. The mics are Behringer C-2. Outdoors I cover the ends of the funnels with faux-fur windscreen.
Are you using the preamp design found in the TI datasheet on the INA217?
I'm using +/- 18V for the circuit and it's still within spec.
I almost always use an external recorder, the Zoom R16 using either it's built in mics and/or with a condenser mic on a mic stand. When i'm editing the video I add the extra audio tracks on the timeline and use the camera audio track to sync the Zoom audio tracks to the video. I will often then mute the camera audio track. I use Adobe premiere Pro to edit the video, and Adobe Audition to edit the audio. These two programs work together and you can non destructively edit the audio from the Premiere Pro time line. This saves a lot of time as you are seeing and can edit both the audio tracks and video tracks together on the Premiere Pro time line.
I feed my audio through a Tascam DR-08 recorder and from there into the camera. That gives me both possibilities for sound editing. My camera has a built-in compression algorithm that sometimes I'm not particularly fond of. I've used the mics on the Tascam but prefer external mics.
Now I need to get out of tinkering mode and get out there to take some real video.
Why do that? Let the Tascam record its audio and let the camera record its own audio. You can mix them or mute the camera audio while editing the video. Why degrade the Tascam audio by running it through the camera?
Speenort wrote:
I feed my audio through a Tascam DR-08 recorder and from there into the camera. That gives me both possibilities for sound editing. My camera has a built-in compression algorithm that sometimes I'm not particularly fond of. I've used the mics on the Tascam but prefer external mics.
Now I need to get out of tinkering mode and get out there to take some real video.
What happened to stats153? And what about advice for him when shooting video with Nikons? Like, settings, shutter speeds, frame rates, exposure, etc. He/she specifically asked for video technique.
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