Let’s Go Shopping

Practically any new digital camcorder that you might look at has a built-in stereo microphone that will do an adequate job. But as you gain expereince and want higher quaility, adequate may soon turn to not good enough.

Camcorder manufacturers implement different audio features from model to model, so there’s plenty to shop for and room to move on if a unit lacks an important feature. We’ll cover built-in features in the main article and offer accessory suggestions in a sidebar.

Front-mounted microphone. Built-in camcorder microphones are located one of two places: on top or on the front end. Go for the latter; this position captures a better, more balanced sound than top-mounted mics, which tend to pick up the voice of the camera operator so well that it dominates everything else. And with the mic located on the front, you’re naturally pointing it at your subject.

Zoom microphone. Just as a zoom lens narrows the camera’s field of view, a zoom mic narrows the area from which the sound is captured. Built-in zoom mics are synchronized with the lens, so the primary audio comes only from the area in the viewfinder.

Imagine you’re at a crowded birthday party and your camera is on full wide-angle as you shoot across the room. Your viewfinder is filled with a dozen people, and the audio track is recording only clamor. As you zoom in tighter on the guest of honor, the audio will get clearer as the other people are excluded from the view-finder. By the time you’re framing a head-and-shoulders shot, the zoom mic should clearly pick up the honoree as she orders you to aim the camera elsewhere while she’s eating a piece of cake the size of a brick.

Most zoom mics operate only in mono, so you’ll lose the spaciousness of stereo sound, but if you couldn’t otherwise hear it, you might find it an acceptable sacrifice.

Low self-noise. If you’re using the built-in mic, a camcorder is probably going to pick up noise from its motor—a constant whir or whine. Some models are much worse about this than others, though, and it can be downright annoying during a tranquil, idyllic shot of your baby sleeping in her crib.

Unfortunately, you can’t tell from a list of features how much motor noise a camera records. If motor noise concerns you, take along a blank of whatever media your prospective camera uses (likely a MiniDV tape or DVD-R) and give an in-store demo model a try. As for checking the playback, you should also have brought some headphones, so you can shut out the store ambience and give the audio closer scrutiny with our next item.

Headphones jack. Camcorders typically have a built-in speaker, but you should not rely on it to tell you much, other than whether you picked up sound at all. Chances are it’s going to be so small, with such a tinny sound, that you can’t accurately judge the quality or clarity of the audio.

But if your camcorder includes an output for a pair of headphones (usually in the 1/8-inch mini-jack size), you can use them to gauge a much better assessment of what you’re recording.

Input jack for external microphone. Inputs (again, usually 1/8-inch mini-jacks) are one of the features that manufacturers sometimes omit in the interest of making smaller cameras. It’s a lousy tradeoff, though, if you’re interested in improving on the built-in mic’s capabilities. An add-on microphone will nearly always deliver a big improvement to your audio quality.

Accessory shoe. And this is where you’ll attach that external microphone. A shoe is a small mounting bracket atop the camera. Photographers often use shoes for lighting attachments, but they will just as easily hold microphones.

All shoes aren’t the same, though. A basic shoe simply holds the accessory in place. A hot shoe also supplies power to the attachment. An intelligent shoe permits two-way communication between the camera and the accessory; both components usually need to be from the same manufacturer to accomplish this. For instance, Sony makes external zoom microphones that, when mounted on a compatible camera equipped with an intelligent shoe, will maintain full synchronization with the lens.

Wind protection. When wind hits a microphone, it records as a loud, snapping rumble that can drown out everything else you’re trying to record. A wind filter alleviates this problem by removing the low sonic frequencies where the rumble is strongest. The filter can sometimes affect the mid-range frequencies too, though, leaving voices sounding a bit nasal. A built-in windscreen may be a better choice because it shields the mic from gusts in the first place.

Sounds Good

Just how important is clear audio for conveying filmed reality? Consider the little boy we heard of recently who prefers watching “Jurassic Park” with the sound off. He’s fine with the sight of marauding dinosaurs—the sounds scare him!

Improving your audio doesn’t have to be a monstrous endeavor. All it takes is a few informed choices.

by Brian Hodge