Anyone ever tried the Sennheiser ME62?
 

I notice you never hear much talk about it.
Anyone used it before?

I don't know much about that specific capsule, but I do own a ME66/K6, and it is a great system - I plan to pick up more ME series capsules for the K6 at some point. I do have a mic that functions similarly to the ME62, however. It is an Octava, but I forget the specific model off the top of my head.

As fas as a pick-up for that type of mic, it's great for dialogue in an indoors/studio situation where the mic can be placed close to the talent. For the most part, that is the type of mic I use for all my indoor shooting.

Again, not specific information on your query, so take it for what it's worth. Hope I helped a bit.

Can you explain a little about the different capsules? Are you saying the the Me62/64/66 is the same mic with different parts for different purposes?
I was planning on getting an NTG-2 for an outside shotgun and an ME64 for indoors. With what you mentioned about the different capsules for the Sennheiser, would it be better to just but the one with a couple different capsules that serve the same purpose as buying both the NTG-2 and the ME64?

The ME62 is a capsule for the K6 power module, making the MExx/K6 system. There are five capsules for the K6:

The ME62 - an omni-directional cardioid capsule.
The ME64 - a shotgun cardioid capsule, but in a very small package.
The ME65 - a supercardioid capsule which is "especially suited to vocal and speech applications" -- from Sennheiser's website.
The ME66 - a medium range, "normal sized" shotgun capsule.
The ME67 - a long range shotgun capsule for "[when] the microphone must be placed at a distance from the sound source." -- from Sennheiser's website.

- and two power modules:

The K6 - which is battery or phantom powered.
The K6P - which is strictly phantom powered.

I personally would reccomend the K6 over the K6P. My camera supplies phantom power, however, there have been times when the battery comes in handy; for example, when I have the mic hooked up to a tap box with no phantom output to simply listen thru the mic for checks and such. Also, using the battery (one AA, which Sennheiser claims will power the mic for up to 1000 hours) saves drain on the camera battery.

I don't know much about the Rode NTG-2, so I can't compare it to Sennheiser's equvilants. However, from a practicality standpoint, I would suggest purchasing one of the power modules and whichever capsules you need, and then all you have to do is switch them out to suit your location.

Currently I own the ME66/K6 and I love it. In the near future I plan on buying more capsules for the system - it has yet to dissapoint me.

John, I think one question whose answer would be
helpful is: How do the ME66 and the NTG2 compare
outdoors? If there's no big difference I
might think to go with the ME66 capsule if
it is cheaper than the NTG-2, and then just
put the 66 capsule on the 64's base.
You only need to buy one base (i.e. the
powering unit).
The MEs use the same base so you just switch
out the top pieces, which are the capsules.
I do have the 64 but that's the only one of the
capsules I've used.

I just checked and see the 66 is $180 and the
NTG2 is $250. So a thought would be to
go with the 66 and then put the difference
in price toward getting a furry wind cover for the
66, which you will need outside.

Wow. I was just over at the Sennheiser
site and saw that the self-noise of the
66 is 10dB! That's really low.

All these ME's seem to be geared for indoor use. How do they do outdoors as the NTG-2 is supposed to work great outdoors and that is a cardoid too I believe.

The ME66 is such a great mic for indoor and outdoor use.

No, no NTG-2 is not cardioid. It is shotgun.

From Rode's site:

NTG-2
Dual Powered Directional Condenser Microphone.
Features:

Broadcast sound quality. Rugged metal construction. Condenser microphone transducer. Weighing 161 grams approx. (5.17 oz.). Low noise circuitry. Low handling noise. Supplied with stand mount and zip pouch. Designed & manufactured in Australia. Full 2 year guarantee.
Operation power:

The NTG-2 is designed to operate from standard P48 phantom power or a 1.5 V Alkaline Battery. The NTG-2 will operate between 44 V to 52 V applied with positive polarity to pin 2 and pin 3 via the output XLR connector.
Operation output impedance:

The NTG-2 will operate satisfactorily into a load impedance as low as 1 k§Ù. If a load below this is used, the output signal level will be reduced. The NTG-2¡¯s output is balanced between pin 2 (hot) and pin 3 (cold). Pin 1 is ground.
Acoustic principle:
Line plus Gradient.
Directional pattern:
Super-Cardioid.

As far as the ME series being geared only for indoor use, that is entirely untrue. The ME67 is definately not an "indoor mic." It is rather large and has a very directional pattern; neither trait is very conducive to an indoor application. Personally, I would not use a medium or long shotgun indoors unless it were a very large space and/or covering some distance.

I wonder if anyone has ever tried using the
ME65 indoors as a boomed "hyper"? The specs say it's down
on sensitivity and self-noise as compared to the rest in the
series. Maybe that's because it's mostly
(I think) designed for handheld use.
Maybe with a good preamp. It's a thought.

RE the comments about indoors or outdoors for the ME family, the issue is with humidity. ME is much more sensitive to humidity than the more expensive mkh series. I would guess that this is the source of the comments, and to a certain degree in high humidity rain etc, using the me family is not recommended

Sharyn

OK, the part about humidity makes sense. However, I live in North Carolina, the home of humidity (and mosquitoes), and I have not had any noticible problems or drop in audio quality with my ME66, so I wouldn't worry about that too much.

I would strongly disagree that the ME66 is geared for indoor use. I've tried using it in a variety of bedrooms, kitchens, living rooms, etc. and it has always sounded really bad to me. I now use a Rode NT3 for indoor shoots and I'm really impressed! Despite the fact its a fairly inexpensive microphone, it does a truly amazing job. I concidered purchasing a ME64 capsule - but the NT3 sounds heaps better (in my opinion).

If you haven't already, it's worth taking a look at these posts:

- Untraditional Microphones/Mixers...
- Audio for Documentary

Having said that, the ME66 works great outdoors. I wouldn't say its the most appropriate purchase for its price/performance, but it's the one I purchased and with good wind protection comes up all right.

My 2c.