Mike supplied with HVR-Z5
 

Hi, has anyone swapped the supplied sony microphone with another and had better results and if so by how much....i.e. is it worth ditching the microphone and spending £100-£200 for another mike? cheers

Hi Resham, I've compared the original mic of the Z5 to a Röde mic that I use on the Z7, and the biggest difference is the directivity. The Röde is a shotgun mic, while the Z5's picks up much more random sounds. Can be an advantage for 'run& gun' situations. The frequency response is OK.

Thanks Luc for the reply.......i bought the rode NTG3 today for £401 after seeing a few demos and knowing for sure the supplied mike is not as good.....heres an example
YouTube - RODE NTG-3

I am sure the NTG-3 will be a lot better than the supplied mic, I have the NTG-1 but find that the stock sony mic on the Z7 and S270 is better.

Hi. I recently purchased a Sennhesier K6/ME66 for this camera - so far happy with the results of the sound - but haven't used it in anger yet.

I can't justify purchasing a SD 302 mixer at prices of around £1000,but in terms of percentage,does anyone know how much the quality of sound is improved going via one of these as opposed direct to the HVR-Z5? i.e. if i recorded with my NTG-3 plugged in direct and then via a SD 302 , would I go 'WOW!!!!!!!!!!' at the difference when played back?

Direct will be fine and dont worry about a mixer improving the sound that much it is just more convenient if you have more than two mic sources.
99% of all my shooting is just the camera mic or radio mics straight into the camera, the auto level control on the Z5/7/S270 is very good too and I have never heard any nasties for most applications.

I have a fairly fixed way of using mics on my S270 with ch1 the camera mic ch2 a rode NTG1 on a boom and ch3+4 for two G2 radio mics. I can matrix to select what to record or if really busy I can record four audio tracks on the S270.

I need to design a fixed way of recording sound with the Z5. I'm now hesitant about using 2 mics on the Z5 at the same time. The wireless G2 I've got to work ok up to now, though not yet used any auto settings on the cam when there are any mics plugged into it.

Issues for the likes of me to think about -

Should the basic mic plugged into input 1 be first choice?
Should the internal stereo mic be switched off?
Would a Sennhieser ME64 or ME66 be better for directional work?
Then there's those menu audio settings ...

The sound-limiter is on mind.