What mic is better
 

I all,

Looking for 2 advices.

I'm going to shoot a long corporate video with a lot of outdoors in the country.
1- I need the ambience sound of the car in a distant road, the birds in the trees, etc., etc.
2- I also need a mic for the interviws. I have a wireless, but want to buy a shotgun. To start working properly !

My camera is a Z1.

I've looked at the AT987, AT4073a and the MKH416.
What's better for me for each application ?
Maybe none of these is appropriated for ambiance sound ? What advice?

Does the Stereo Shotgun's do provide a nice stereo ambience, or is better to have a decent "mono" mic ?

I'm also lookig for a "proper" support for the mic to adapt on the Z1.
I remenber to see a nice one but can't find that post. I also remenber it was not cheap... ... ...


Thanks
Carlos Manuel

IMHO, none of these is good for general ambience. "Ambience" is the general "sound field" surrounding you. Those sounds are arriving from all directions. Shotgun mics are specifically designed to reject sounds arriving from any direction except exactly where the mic is pointed. So by intent a shotgun mic won't even hear all those sounds you're trying to record. Better to use a good quality omni mic instead.

Shotguns are also not the best choice for an interview unless you have a boom operator who is going to hold the mic on a pole just out of frame right up close to the subject. If you're thinking of using it on your camera, you will proably be very disappointed in the result. Without a boom operator, a far better choice for interviews unless your camera is right up in the face of the subject would be a wired or wireless lav mic placed on the subject. If your interviewer is skilled in using a mic, another option would be for him to use a handheld mic, alternately pointing it at the subject and at himself. That takes practice to do correctly so a third option is to put a lav on the interviewer and have him hold a handheld on the subject.

Single-point stereo mics to me seem most useful for recording music. For interviews, ambience, dramatic dialog, etc the same $$ spent on a mono mic will buy far higher quality and it will be more generally useful.

Thanks Steve

About the interviews, I do them now with a wireless mic, but I want to avoid the mic appear on the shirt all the time.
I plan to get a shotgun on a tripod above the head or with an operator, NOT on the camera.
Like I see all the time on the "60mintute" type of interviews.
So for this, what do you recommend me (75% is interiors) ?

For the ambiance your right. A shotgun may not be the best choice.
I'm going to shoot a large corporate video. I have a lot of scenes on outdoors in the field (birds, cows and car on the road around 30m)
I want a mike to be on the camera (Z1) than can pick up the sound better than the internal mic and without interference from the normal finger operation of the camera operator.
It has to be on the camera. No sound operator.

I see that most ENG operators have a shotgun on the camera.
Also, what's your advice ?

Thanks

Carlos i hope you do not mind a beginner at all this giving you advice, but really, you have to learn a good bit more about sound before you buy anything. Then, once you have a wee bit more knowledge, you might realise that what you want (with mic on camera) may not be possible?

The best book i have bought so far is Jay Rose's book on Producing Great Sound for Digital Video. It is one of the best investment you will ever make regarding sound.

Michael

For indoor booming I'd defrnitely NOT recommend a shotgun. Unless you are on a soundstage, envirommental reflections can play havoc with the sound quality. Much preferred is a hypercardioid.

Followinf on from Steve's good advice, suggestions fo Hypercardioid that should work well on a boom indoors are perhaps AT-4053a Hypercardioid :
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/cont...ughType=search

Then if you needed a more open polar pattern for your ambient sound recording, you can interchange the capsules on this mic.

AT4051a-EL is the cardioid element :
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/cont...u=68319&is=REG

and AT4049A-EL is the omni element:
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/cont...u=68318&is=REG

Omni element may be best for getting the ambient sounds from all around.
Quiet a flexible system as once youve got one mic, the other capsules are less money to get (about $195 currently at B&H) and slot onto the front end.

Other suggestions for Hyper for a boom include a Sennsheiser ME64/K6. That shoudl be good too.

MKH416 is a superb shotgun, and should work really well outdoors, in the right environment.
As Steve said, shotguns really don't sound very natural indoors at all - in that situ you'll get far better results from the 4053a or ME64.