Sennheiser ME66
 

When mounted on the Canon XL1 with X3 lens will the ME66 come into frame when the lens is at it's widest opening?

Also, would this be a better microphone to have on the camera for videoing wildlife in Kenya compared to the standard onboard microphone?

Last year when I went to Kenya the onboard microphone worked quite well and picked up the sound of lions, cheetahs crunching away on bones etc but every now and again would also pick up general conversation in the landrover which 90% of the time we managed to keep to a minimum but on a few occaisions did ruin the actual audio although in post I could get away with mixing audio from different scenes.

I am hoping the ME66 would eliminate that but would I then loose the ability to pick up fairly good background noise of say alarm calling zebras whilst at the same time picking up the closer bone crunching sounds of lions tucking in to dinner?

The best of both worlds would be nice. I suppose the easiest thing is for everyone in the vehicle to stay quiet 100% of the time but as it's not a professional shoot, it won't happen.

A shotgun mic is going to be much more directional than the on-board mic, and it's also going to be more sensitive.
It's still going to pick up nearby conversations, and human voices are going to sound really weird when the speakers are off-axis.

The thing about the ME66 is that the accessories for it cost a lot. You're going to want a shockmount (lightwave system's is the best, and has risers to get the mic out of the frame but you don't need them) and a wind screen (shotguns pick up more wind noise). You can spend as much on the accessories as the mic itself.

Hi Glenn,

Have you tried mounting the ME66 directly on the XL1 standard mic holder directly? The XL1 mic holder is bigger than the diameter of the ME66 - no matter how tight you screw the bolt down, it is impossible to hold the ME66 down.

You really need the Lightwave shockmount here.

An el cheapo solution might to wind some sticky tapes/cloth around the ME66 stock holder first, before putting it into the XL1 mic holder.

TS

Gareth,
If you mount the ME67 (longer than ME66) on the XL1s with 16x, it will show in the frame at the widest angle. Now, the ME66 is shorter, but you wanna use it with 3x, so it might show. your best deal is to buy a camera mount:

BH Camera mount


TingSern,
I had to mount the ME66/ME67 mics on the camera's holder directly. I just wrapped a napkin around the mic base, and mounted it. it worked fine (but it didn't look professional). Then I bought a small mounting piece from BH, which let's you mount the mic on the Flash hot shoe. (link above)

I don't know how the lense magnification and hot shoe placement differs between the GL-2 and XL-1, but I can use my ME66 with the Lightwave wind screen (cat hair type), on a Lightwave camera mount, with the WD-58 wide angle lense on my GL-2, without it entering the frame.

Nawaf,

Your solution of using the BH mount won't work for me. I have to use an external LCD monitor and using that flash hot shoe on my XL1. The only way to use Lightwave shockmount to hold the ME66 in place.

Thanks,
TS

Many Thanks for the advice people.

Undecided which way to go yet. Might go Sennheiser, also looking at Audio Technica.

As far as using the X3 lens, I just used that as an example because at its widest I thought this lens would be the one if any that shows the microphone in frame. Would also be using the Manual 16x and Canon 100-400 EF IS lens again.

Looking back at my footage from last year I might just stay with the standard microphone. The audio was very good overall.

I used the ME66 with the XL1 by using a few standard O-rings I got at the local hardware megacenter.

Give it a shot ...for less than a buck the ME-66 should fit in the XL1 mic mount.

http://www.beyerdynamic.com/com/product/index_s.php3?find=ea+86

I bought one of these from a dealer (I'm in the UK) - I think it was around £15 and works very well with an ME66, mini basket and softee. I got the version that has an extended thread and hot shoe so it sits about 5cm above the hot shoe.

Good, cheap and excellent mechanical isolation from the camera :) You can also slide the mic back a bit if it's in shot (I use a JVC DV550 and Panasonic DVX100)

Not sure if it's available in the US though???

Paul