Chapter 2. Capturing High-Quality Audio

It generally takes a couple of video shoots before you realize that the weakest link on your camcorder is the microphone. Don't worry; it's not you, or your camcorder for that matter. It's just a simple fact of life that all onboard microphones are lousy.

This leaves you with two alternatives for capturing higher-quality audio: Get really close to your subject, or use an external microphone. Assuming that close proximity is not always an option, we'll look at a variety of microphone options that should provide a significant improvement over what you get with your camcorder.

We'll start with a brief inventory of your camcorder, which will tell us the type of microphones you can connect to and the equipment you'll need to do so. Then we'll survey the most popular types of microphones and their uses, and conclude with a brief look at several common shooting scenarios and recommend a specific microphone setup for each.

The good news is there are myriad options for working around your camcorder's microphone. For the most part, we'll look at the least expensive options, which can be operated by the cameraperson, and traveled with, or attached to, the camera. If you're permanently mike-ing up a room, you should consider a different range of options; but if you're assembling a kit you can afford and are able to take on the road at a moment's notice, you're in the right place.

BeachTek, Shure, and Sony provided most of the equipment we tested in this chapter, which is why their names keep popping up in the recommended equipment list. While they're certainly not the only suppliers out there, we're more comfortable recommending equipment that we've used multiple times and in the tests described below and several other shoots.