Rode VideoMic for wildlife

[eduardo_barrento]

<p>Hello, does anyone uses the Rode VideoMic for filming wildlife with DSLR (7D in my case) and is it a stereo mic? I have heard it is and it is not.<br>

Thanks</p>

[eduardo_barrento]

<p>OK: I saw there are two, the PRO version is strereo, but it is cardioid, not a shotgun as the mono version is. What should I buy for wildlife (distante subjects)?</p>

[frank_skomial]

<p>distant subjects? - perhaps remote radio transfer microphone.</p>

[craig_shearman1]

<p>Haven't shot with this mic or this camera, but I have shot a fair amount of video. I think you have a couple of choices. First, if you are serious about captioning the sound of an animal you are photographing, you need a sound person with a mic in a parbolic reflector, similar to what you see on the sidelines of football games to pick up the players grunts and groans. (Not that different from the animal's noises maybe...) If you're not going to go to that length, then the best you're going to pick up are the general ambient sounds around you, and anything from a standard omnidirectional mike like a good old ElectroVoice 635A or RE50 on up is going to work just fine. Stereo isn't an issue -- stereo is an effect created more in post processing of sound than in field recording so don't worry about it.</p>

[eduardo_barrento]

<p>Thanks to both of you! I think I will buy the Rodemic mono...</p>

[john_macpherson]

<p>You need to do some more research - as I understand it the Canon 7D has AGC (automatic gain control) for sound and no manual control over audio, and by all accounts this does not result in good clean audio. You may need to use a device like the Beachtek DSLR or JuicedLink equivalent to run the mic into which has circuitry which disables the AGC and then sends a clean high-quality signal into the camera.</p>

[eduardo_barrento]

<p>Hi John, thx. I did do a lot of research, but my english is not famous, lol, and people are always talking with abreviations or slang, and they tend to talk as experts with other experts people, wich is not my case.<br />I saw lots people saying that they buy this microphone... same say that they use it alone, conected to the camera, and some say they uses also a Zoom H1 or H4. What do you think about using Rode videomic and H1?<br />Thank you once more</p>

[john_macpherson]

<p>Dont know about the mic quality but the Zoom gets good reviews all the time, however you'll then need to sync the sound to the image later. Pluraleyes is the software that many favour for this.It uses the waveform from the in-camera sound to match the recorder wave to. Apparently works superbly. I've not used it.</p>

<p>Your choices are: Beachtek or juicedlink with mic for clean sound directly into the camera, no syncing later and fewer buttons to press. OR separate recorder and mic - allows choice of mic placement, and then the bother of syncing later. The Zoom H4 gives you 4 channels so you could use a mic for directional sound and the built-in mics for ambient to give you a much more expansive sound effect.</p>

<p>I'm no expert - just doing my own research for similar purposes!</p>

<p>You might find this site useful <a href="http://www.cinema5d.com/index.php">cinema5d</a></p>

 

[jackaldridge]

<p>I use the Rode Videomic directly into the 5D Mkii for recording indoors. Its a great mic, but any serious sound work probably needs to be done externally and synced later.<br>

The 5D Mkii firmware update made some great improvements (i.e. manual volume control, AGC off, etc...), but I still get a fair amount of external noise. I suspect you also have those controls on your 7D.<br>

The Rode Videomic is also pretty directional...making it great if you're pointing in the right direction... :-)</p>

[eduardo_barrento]

<p>Thank you both :) For now I will stay with the Rode videomic...</p>