On Tue, 01 Feb 2000 05:12:08 GMT, "Daniel H Lauring" wrote:

>Filmed a child's concert with a GL-1. The music came out fine but you
>couldn't here the band director speaking...much too quiet. Can someone
>advice me on an add-on mic that would improve the cameras performance for
>such things? Sony sells a zoom microphone for $80 dollars (ECM-Z157.)
>http://www.sel.sony.com/SEL/consumer/ss5/office/accessories/camcordermicroph
>ones/ecm-z157.shtml
>Would that be a good choice? It zooms automatically with Sony's...I imagine
>you'd have to manually zoom it for the Canon. For a little more there is
>the ECM-MS908C which doesn't feature a zoom.
>
>I've also seen an Azden ECZ-990 6" 2 position zoom mic for about $60
>dollars.

The Sony ECM-Z157 is a very good inexpensive directional
mic, but it is currently hard to get, and it is very
wind-sensitive, and somewhat bass-shy. BTW, it zooms
only manually, an advantage since it will work on all
camcorders (with a mic-in mini-jack), and it will not
have an annoying level and "color" change when the lens
is zoomed (I do not see the value of "auto-zooming" on
the mic!). An advantage of the manual-zoom feature is
that you can select the optimum "color" and directivity
balance for your particular application. Another commonly
used mic that works well with most camcorders is the
Sennheiser MKE-300 - about $175, though (and often not
compatible with the TRV-900...). It has an upper bass
peak and a high-end peak (a presence peak would be more
useful for distant voice pickup than the above, but the
audio can often be EQ'd successfully later) not unlike,
but less extreme than the similar-shaped response of the
GL-1 audio, which makes it not ideal for voice pickup...