what mic should I buy?
 

I am in the UK.

can someone give me a range of mic's? from cheap (say 80-100 pounds) to expensive ones?

thank you in advance.

Try Rode Videomic. They are great! I got it for about 60pounds here in Singapore. Its stereo and good for the FX1e.

http://www.rode.com.au/?pagename=Pro...oduct=VideoMic

Oliver

You haven't said what camera you have - FX1 or Z1. The Rode Videomic has a 3.5mm jack - so, as Sean says, it works great with the FX1, but will need an adpater to work with the Z1 as it has 2 XLR connectors. I have a Rode NTG2 for the Z1 with a Rode Sony fit shock mount. Does the job for me.

Ian

It's actually mono. It feeds the mono signal to both left and right channels so it 'seems' like stereo, but it is actually a mono mic. Excellent value for money and nice-sounding.

Rode is now going to release a new Stereo Video mic to replace the old mono ones.... hopefully the price will stay the same.

OOps.. yeah, the videomic is Mono, but wired to be stereo to the 3.5mm jack.. the new videomic would be coming soon.. Heard about that too..

There's a lot more information you need to provide for us to give any meaningful suggestions.

What other equipment do you already have or will be acquiring? As Ian mentioned, if you plan to plug directly into a camera, what camera and what kind of connectors does it have? Does it supply phantom power? Or if you will be using a preamp or mixer and/or an external recorder, what equipment will that be?

What will you be recording - music, interviews, dramatic dialog, general ambience, sound effects, wedding vows, speeches at an event, stage productions?

Where will you be recording - indoors, outdoors, conventional residence rooms and offices, soundstages, theatres, broadcast studio?

Who will be recording - Do you have a crew to work with you or are you shooting by yourself?

Do you need wireless? Will you put the mic on a stand, mount it on the camera, put it on a boom for an assitant to hold over the scene, clip it to or put it in the hand of the talent?

Looking just at price, you could be looking at anything from a Giant Squid lavalier at about $25 US all the way up to a Neumann U87a at about $4000 and some classic mics that will run 3 to 5 times that even on the used market. What's the best mic? Well, if you want an unobtrusive mic to record someone's wedding vows the Giant Squid would probably be "better" than the Neumann - it all depends on what you're trying to accomplish.

Fill us in on the nature of your needs and we'll be more than glad to help out.

99% sure its to be sold alongside the original mono Videomic, not to replace it. Its a fairly..... substantial thing the new Stereo-Videomic, and it wouldnt surprise me greatly if a lot of people were slightly put off simply as its really quite bulky and maybe aesthetically challenged. But mics are bought to sound good, and its not really relevant if it looks a bit odd.

Its available to order in Australia here (pic of it can be seen):
http://www.videoguys.com.au/scripts/...idproduct=2120

Plus its now on the official Rode site :
http://www.rodemic.com/?pagename=Pro...tereo_VideoMic

and bigger pic here :
http://www.rodemic.com/images/svm/St...icsideways.jpg

The original mono Videomic remains on the Rode site, alongside the Stereo-Videomic.

Yes, plus mono is often preferable to stereo, plus the SVM costs twice as much as the VideoMic.

But back to the original post, the range is from about $40 USD for a low level consumer mic to $1800 USD for a single studio quality mic. The people who post in this forum seem to be inclined to purchase in the $300-500 USD range, which are often referred to as "lower end professional mics," but some of the pros here have the expensive mics too. The Rode VideoMic is considered by many to sound as good as the lower end pro mics, and many of us have one in our arsenal.

Agree on that for sure - i've had my Videomic for about 15mths - great mic for the cash. They ought to be compulsory by law or something..

If you have a FX1 pick up a Rode Videomic if for nothing else than sometimes you just want a mic that's easy to setup and use (read: not taking the beachtek, etc).

If you have a Z1 skip it and go right to a Rode NT1 or 2. As others have said usage varies and so do mics. One can get a remarkable 3-400 dollar mic that tops the field in one area like broadcasting that's crap for another use...or a 2K shotgun mic that can't handle room recording as well as a SM-58

Paul