how does the microphone?

Question

that you attack to the camcorder, work? when videotaping, does the actor hold a mini microphone to speak in or does the microphone on the camera only catch the sound of what the speaker is saying?

Answer 1

If you use the microphone on the camera you will get a echo sound from the person talking, as it takes time for sound to travel back. If you use an external microphone, the actor can hold a mini microphone for better sound, as it's closer to the mouth and cuts down on background noise and the "air" noise from traveling from the person talking to the camcorder. Best to use a lavaliere microphone which either hangs around the neck or is clipped to the actors clothes. (news people wear two, {one is a back up} and you can see it clipped to the collar on their suit ) The microphone is most likely wired (about 7 feet of wire) to go back to the camera's external microphone jack. There are also wireless microphones (transmitters) that send the audio back to the camcorder to a receiver that you have either attached to the camcorder or in your pocket with enough wire to plug into the external audio jack next to the microphone. Once you plug into the external audio jack, the microphone on the camcorder itself is turned off.

Answer 2

Lav mics do work well in certain cases, but in most cases, you'll get a more natural sound from using a shotgun mounted on camera or on a boom. A camera-mounted shotgun is okay, and if you're doing a lot of run and gun, it's the best options, but a boom mounted shotgun is better otherwise because it allows the mic the get closer and point directly at the person's mouth. A good fair-priced shotgun mic is the Rode Stereo videomic. It costs around $250, has a 1/8 inch miniplug instead of XLR outputs for easier connecting to lower-end cameras, and runs on a 9v battery. Hope this helps!

Answer 3

If your camera allows an external mic, it cuts off the internal one and only takes the signal from the external one.

Generally you use a peanut mic on the person with a long cable or wireless transmitter. Peanut mics are not bad from Radio Shack ($30) and pro ones from Sony are more like $400.