External mic
 

Hello ,
I am looking on external camera mic for my little Pana gs400.
At this time I like Rode Videomic and Sennheiser MKE300 VIDEO.

Which one to buy??

First let me say that I have no hands on experience with the Rode mic.

I have used the MKE300 VIDEO though. I found it to be quite good in a "Man on the Street" interview situation. I interviewed a man from about 5 feet away and his voice was clear and very understandable. All around I thought that it was a good mic for the price and the design.

The one drawback that I experienced with it was that, on my Sony TRV11, the mic doesn't seem to be isolated from the camera as well as it could be. It picked up zoom motor noise while I used it. Now, it wasn't terrible or anything, just a low hum when the motor was engaged. It irritated me, but nobody else heard it until I pointed out to them.

All that said, I'd probably buy one again.

I have the Panasonic PV GS500 and a Rode StereoVideoMic that seems to me to be a very good overall utility mic. Has good stereo imaging and the clarity when used properly fairly close to the talent works fine for me.

I frequently use it with a 16' extension cord and put it on a lightweight stand just out of the frame, or put a lightweight boom on the stand and suspend it just over and forward of the talent.

I've used in on a Jones flash bracket (left over from my days of shooting weddings with Hasselblad) and gone handheld in windy environments (the Deadcat windmuff that comes with it is invaluable.

And tests indicate it works well as a voice over narration mic. I run my VO mic through a Studio Projects VTB1 mic preamp so I can cut the mic input gain on the PC soundcard way down and avoid soundcard "white noise".