Effectively Capturing Audio

There are many ways to capture usable audio when in the field. Sadly, using your on board microphone is not an ideal solution. Your best bet is using an external microphone that can connect to your audio input. You can also use a separate recording device and match the audio up to your clips in post production processing, but  this might require a time marker. Take a look at some of our options presented below and see what would work best for your shooting style and work flow.

Sennheiser MKE 400 Compact Video Camera Shotgun Microphone

Rode VideoMic – Camera Mounted Shotgun Microphone

Rode Stereo VideoMic – Camera Mounted Microphone

And for our 5D users…

BeachTek Audio Adapter

The DXA-5D XLR adapter also features dual transformer-based XLR inputs with phantom power and built-in level meters.  There’s also a built-in headphone jack so one can finally monitor the audio and trim controls permit the user to dial-in proper signal levels.  Extra cool….
This XLR adapter includes a nice LCD display which shows the state of various switches and battery life and also shows audio levels from -54 dBu to -33dBu so verifying proper audio recording levels will be a snap!

Forums / Tutorials

Here are some links to help you get acquainted further with audio recording in the field.

Sound Recording Tips by Philip Bloom

DPReview thread on Audio

The Sweet Sounds of HD Recording Great-Sounding Audio with the Canon EOS 5D MkII By Kevin Reylek courtesy of B&H.

Chuck Westfall talks about the sync issue with other devices