Difference between ME64 & ME66
 

Hey all, I have the Sennheiser ME66, but it doesn't work well enough indoors for my tastes.

Would the ME64 offer decent indoor quality while maintaining acceptable outdoor quality?

I usually have it mounted on my camera. I'm looking for one basic "shotgun" mic for my kit (lav, condenser, cardioid). I only do doc/reality work, so I'll essentially never have it boom mounted. For interviews, it would occasionally be mounted on a mic stand close to the subject. I know everyone seems to love the AT-897 for all-around work, but it will be cheaper and easier for me to just swap out the Sennheiser mic capsules. Thanks in advance.

I use the ME64 on a boom indoors and usually outside. If it's really noisy or I need the extra reach I go to the ME66, but rarely.

I haven't tried it on camera but I think the 64 would produce better quality sound, with less coloration (but also with less side rejection) than the 66 in almost every situation.

I just did a series of actor auditions with the 64 on a mic stand. I wasnt thrilled with the sound--rather metallic/cold. I should have used a voice over mic for that since it could be in the frame, but since they were just auditions I didnt really care and used the first thing I grabbed. Plus I will use the 64 on a boom when we do the actual shoot.

Shotgun mics - ANY shotgun mic - are not the best choice for indoor work. Their pattern is highly frequency dependent and many lose much, if not almost all, of their directivity to sounds in the lower frequency ranges arriving from the sides and rear. As a result, when you use one in a environment that is reflective like most interiors except acoustically treated sound stages the sound recorded is very coloured, sounding to my ears like it's coming from the bottom of a well. Couple that with the fact that camera mounted mics are rarely in a position close enough to the subject pick up dialog such as interviews well in the first place and you're definitely trying to swim upstream against the current.

The ME64 is a cardioid mic rather than a shotgun like the ME66 and is likely to be less coloured by reflections than the ME66. But still, mounting it on the camera is going to give you signifigant problems in obtaining good sound since most of the time its just not going to be close enough to the subject to pickup well.

Your best bet is to get a good hypercadioid and figure out a way to get it close to the speaker.

My opinion : ME64 capsule is only $154 from B&H
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/cont...ughType=search
since you already have the K6 module i'd get the ME64. It should work MUCH better indoors than the ME66. I've read quite a lot about people using ME64 indoors and it's their on-camera goto mic for that situ.

But good advice also from previous posters and if you go hypercardioid i'd get something like the Rode NT3 which is pretty nice:
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/cont...ughType=search

cheers

This is probably worth a read:

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=66341

Dave,
I bought the AT 897(shotgun), which I'm happy with. But when I was looking, I came across an interesting article about the me64 .Since you already have the me66, it's a no brainer.
Check out the article on the me64 at
www.alanbarker.com

Bruce Yarock

good article Bruce - i've read that before.

Here's the 'more precise' URL which should go straight to the article:
http://www.alanbarker.com/contentpages/whyk6.html

Agreed--thanks Bruce. I actually read that article about 2 years ago, but I'd completely forgotten it.

I bought the ME64 capsule last Friday for $109 (used) at BHphoto. I'm pretty excited. I'm going to test out the 64 for a couple weeks, and if it works well in a wider variety of situations, I'll think of selling that ME66 capsule.

I encourage you to experiment with both in a wide range of conditions. It's actually nice having the choice between a cardioid (ME64) and a short-shotgun (ME66). If you can get close to ideal mic placement, yes, the cardioid will give you the best, most natural sound, and yes, it's better for indoor use, however, if a particular situation would benefit from better off-axis rejection of sounds in the mid to higher frequencies (both mics will pick up off-axis lower frequences in a similar manner) like shooting outdoors in an urban environment, then a short-shotgun (ME66) is likely to be the better option for the particular situation. So if you're going to find yourself in both situations, then having both is pretty handy.

ME 64 Follow-up
 

I got the ME64 and used it for the first time yesterday. I was interviewing a small group of contestants after the National Geography Bee and the Mic was great for the situation. Good sound quality. Good pickup area for 3-5 people standing close in front of the camera. Not too much background noise considering the circumstances.

And its got great size for portability's sake. I shoot with the A1U and the ME66 was quite a bit longer than the camera.