Recommendations for Camcorder Mic

[Phil A. Lefebvre]

On 12/3/02 at 4:22 PM -0800, Macintosh Digital Video List wrote:
>
>On 12/3/02 4:33 PM, "Phil A. Lefebvre" <p-lefebvre at northwestern.edu> wrote:
>
>  > My wife asked for a gift idea... My first thought is the Sony ECM-HS1
>  > Gun Zoom microphone, since it claims to sync with the zoom...
>  > Anyone have any experience with this device, and/or recommendations
>>  for something else?
>
>"Gun Zoom microphone" is marketing verbiage, pure puffery.... a 
>shotgun mic is just a big chunk of junk ... In other words, a joke.

Sure, but how do you really feel? :-) Thanks for the heads up, glad I 
didn't ask for it, or she'd have bought it already (she's pretty much 
done w/ Xmas shopping otherwise!).

>some super-simple consumer camcorders have internal mics which are so flawed
>that *any* external mic would be an improvement. You be the judge; I am not
>familiar with your equipment or how you use it. Even if you upgrade the mic,
>the advice about close camera and mic position holds, completely valid.

I doubt the mic on my basic 1st gen Digital 8 will impress anyone; I 
know nothing about audio and if doesn't impress me. My desire was for 
something that would help me pick up a conversation across a room, 
when it just doesn't work to walk through the group, and my family 
doesn't take direction very well anyway, (they're not that into being 
taped) so getting them closer to me is certain to be a scene killer.

The wireless mic idea sounds interesting; I could toss the mic like a 
grenade where ever I'm looking at, but it wouldn't be very good a 
keeping up with me as a pan around or switch to another scene. What 
about the different models that are called unidirectional vs. the 
omnidirectional ones supposedly built-in to camcorders? Any other 
suggestions, or are the laws of acoustics just not that bendable?
-- 
__________________________
Phil Lefebvre
Chicago, IL