DV Info Net - Microphones & Wide-angles

I've replaced the standard microphone holder on my PD-150 with the Sony CAC-12 holder that is normally used on ENG cameras. ($180 at B&H).

I use the rubber collar that surrounds the standard PD-150 microphone to wrap an Audio-Technica 835B. Everything mounts up as if Sony had built as original equipment.

The mount moves the microphone up far enough that it does not appear in the field of view at wide angles.

The microphone works very well on the PD-150. Maybe the 48 volts of Phantom Power give it the extra boost or the PD may just be better in this regard (some have commented that the AT was signal level was too low on the VX-2000).
PD-150 only, though.

Century Optics Wide angle adapter for the PD-150/VX-2000 (bayonet mount).

I taped an outdoor wedding yesterday with really short distances. Needed the wide angle but was concerned about glare in the lens. Tried all my lens hoods and found that the Mamiya RB-67, 55mm wide-angle lens hood slips over the front of the Century like it does on the Mamiya. Just out of view at full-wide.

I had the Century 0.5 WA adapter on the lens the whole time. And I had a Light Wave fuzzy cover on the AT. At extreme wide, I could see a few hairs. A very slight tilt of the microphone (the CAC-12 has a ball joint) took it out of sight. With the normal lens, it wouldn't even come close. The CAC-12 moves the microphone up off the camera by another 2 inches compared to the stock mount I'd guess.

Regarding the WA adapter. I'd read in a WEVA post that someone else had the adapter and would put it on and leave it on for the entire wedding. I just did the same. The distances were very modest so the shorter focal length did no harm.

Where it really paid off was during the dancing. Normally I have to chase the bride and groom around and worry about focus. This room was so dark (and I could not use an on-camera light) that I could not read so there was little hope of doing any sort of focus. I set the camera for a mid-distance (wouldn't you love to have footage markers in the viewfinder?) and they were in focus for the entire dance. The field of view was great enough that I did not have to pan.

One thing I would like on the PD-150 is a little feature that the PC110 has. In manual focus mode, pushing the momentary focus button not only kicks in auto focus but it also reads out the distance at which the camera focuses. Talk about a nice feature in dim light! On a PD-150 it would be nice to have distance displayed in the viewfinder.

Oh yeah, the wind was gusting to about 30 mph and I had to record the performance of a string quartet and flute soloist too. Nearly ran out of recording devices and microphones. For the ceremony, an AT 835B was placed on a microphone stand off to the side behind a flower table and pointed up at the B&G and recorded with a Sony Minidisk recorder hung from the stand in a fanny pack. I used a simple XLR to stereo mini-jack adapter from the microphone to the minidisk and it worked well.

The groom was wired with a Sennheiser Evolution 100 transmitter, the ME2 microphone covered by one of the little fuzzy wind socks. No wind noise whatsoever. After the ceremony, the photographer took the couple down into the valley below the winery to shoot candids in the grapes. I could barely see them but the Sennheiser was still punching out good audio.

A PC-110 with another Century WA adapter was set square to the ceremony (there was no center aisle; the aisles were at 45 degrees to the ceremony). A cheap old Sony F99EX stereo electret microphone was fed into the 110 to record the quartet. It worked really well with a fuzzy wind sock designed for a Sure SM58 microphone covering the active elements.