Tripod Productions LLC

Compatible camcorders/boom microphones?

I’m shooting a movie in the spring, and I thought it’d be a good idea (what with Christmas, and my birthday soon after) to save up to get some better quality equipment. I’m currently running on a $150 FinePix camera and a $2 external microphone that I use for voice overs. :S I was looking into camcorders, specifically HD, and whilst doing that, I found that I was interested in having a lower cost HD camcorder with a lower cost attachable boom mic. I was wondering if anyone knew of any HD camcorders (300 or less) that had a hot shoe for fitting a shotgun microphone.

Some Canon and Sony camcorders have a hot shoe for attaching Canon or Sony equipment (video lights or mics). These proprietary hot shoes means the mic is attached to the camcorder – so – how would you connect the mic to a boom?

There is no DXG camcorder with a hot shoe.

The hot shoe means there are connections that can carry power (hence, “hot”), and audio depending on the proprietary device connected.

A “boom mic” more commonly referred to as a “shotgun mic” mounted to a boom pole. The mic is connected with a cable (or sometimes wirelessly, but that is very expensive, so we’ll stay with wired mics). Using the Azden SMX10 as an example, note the *short* cable to a 1/8″ plug. This plugs into a camcorder’s 1/8″ (3.5mm) stereo audio-in jack. That DXG you pointed us to does not have a 1/8″ audio input. Using *that* camcorder and *that* mic won’t work.

1) Drop the “hot shoe” requirement.
2) The camcorder you *want* needs to have an audio input jack. If you can’t do that, then you can pick whatever camcorder you want, and get an external audio “filed recorder” like a Zoom H1, H2 or H4. When you edit the video, import the audio, sync with the video, mute the audio that was captured by the video.
3) If you follow the first suggestion and drop the hot shoe requirement, most camcorders don’t have a “cold” shoe either… but for $15 you can add one or more by using a camera bracket. Search amazon using “bescor vb 50″ for an example. There are lots more. Some cost more, some cost less.

As far as I know, cameras that capture high definition video with a audio-in jack include the Kodak Z18 and Canon HF series.

Camcorder Internal VS External Mic Test

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