thoughts on the Sennheiser 418 for use on a DVX100A
 

Hi folks, I've seen some passing references to this mic, but here's the specific situation that I'm thinking of using it for. I'm getting a DVX100A within the next couple of weeks, and I'll be using in for documentary work - some feature stuff later on, but I've got mics for that. I would like to mount the Sennheiser 418 on my camera to give me a good sound for my work. I'll be shooting mostly in homes and some out door stuff for a large project.

Anybody have experience with the 418? How about the MKH 60 instead? I also thought of the combining the MKH60 with the emser for more of a stereo sound? Suggestions?

One more question - would I be better off going into the sound devices preamp and line out to the camera? I'm going to be a one man operation on this gig.

thanks for your suggestions!
Milt Lee
http://realrez.com

You will get better sound by running line from the SD pre... but the difference may not be worth it for a documentary. The dvx pres are pretty good.

I don't have experience with the 418 but I'd expect it to be pretty good.

I use a 416... sometimes boomed and sometimes on-cam. It works very well in both situations. The 416 definitely needs to be pointed at the source though.

The Mkh60 has a smoother sound and selectable low-pass and presence peak... but any of these 3 mics would be a top choice.

But NONE of these are the ideal choice indoors.

I'd suggest a hyper-cardioid for that... one without much "tail" in the polar pattern.

Thanks for the feedback. Has anybody used the EMESSER, and when you do a M/S stereo setup, how does the camera resolve it? Do you need a M/S matrix? I've seen these things for a long time but never used it.

For indoors work, I've been using my sennheiser MKH50 for a long time, and I love it, but I wondered about using it mounted on top of a DVX100a.

Thanks again,
Milt Lee

If you've got an Mkh50 then you're already covered indoors! That's a great mic with a ton of reach for a hyper...

I don't know why you'd waste time with anything else for indoor use.

Thanks for the advice. Yep, I do love it. You can do so much with the sound and it just jumps out for clarity, which I personally always like. I love to mix the rest of my sound around the voice rather than trying to dig the voice out of the frufra.

Milt Lee

Milt why go to the emesser? It's noisy from what I hear and is manufactured by MBHO, Ambient doesn't make mics.

A better match for your MKH50 would be the bidirectional MKH30. if you did buy the 418, you could use it as a separate shotgun and fig 8 as well.

For more info on the 418's MS function see this link

I appreciate it. Yep the MKH30 makes sense. Just thought I would run that emesser by you. For some reason the link didn't come up in my browser but I've got the google bar turned on so sometimes things don't pop. But I'll look it up on Sennheiser.

Thanks again,
M.

Milt
I just tried it and it came up OK. It's a 34page PDF from the International site (www.sennheiser.com) The US site doesn't have it for some reason.