audio advice for new filmmaker
 

Dear Audio Guru's,
I'll be filming my first short film and am trying to find audio equipment that will record better audio better than my HMC-150. Any recommendations for a good portable recorder and mixer that would capture good audio at a relatively affordable price? Thanks !

If you are interested in connecting mics to your camera's XLR inputs, I'd recommend a good shotgun for outdoor dialogue (I hear several Audio-Technica models are good, and I like my Rode NTG-2). If you are concerned about wind, I'd recommend something like the Rode Blimp (which I recently purchased and love).

For general environment sounds in stereo, I like to record with Hi-MD units (MiniDisc) with the Audio-Technica AT822 with a basic fluffball to protect it from most minor wind noise.

You could take a look at these:
Mixer: Sound Devices 302
Recorder: Fostex FR2 LE
However, I don't claim to be a guru!

That would be a professional audio person.

Good advice is to know what you are doing and having many options. Have some lavs if they work for this occasion, and a boom mic if they work here. Be ready to overdub some parts in a studio if required. Know how to do each of these things and I'd recommend knowing how to make a good mix first. But then again, I went from music recording over to video, so audio is one of those things that are really important to me in video :). But simply knowing where to compress and put a noise gate can really help you out.

This means, read everything you can!

I picked up a used Shure field mixer on ebay. It made an otherwise really expensive mixer much more affordable. Be aware tho that old equipment can get noisy pots. THe seller said they were clean on the unit I bought and he was right. YMMV

Also, give yourself some time to practice with your equipment and get to know it. The advice to have an audio kit so you can mic a variety of situations is a good one.