Any suggestions for a mic. the one I have on the camera right now, i get a hum whenever i zoom. I just cant have this happen any longer driving me crazy.
Any suggestions, would like to keep it under $200 if possible.

The only way to stop that hum is to have the microphone as far from the camera as possible. I have a Rode NTG3, but it picks up the hum when attached to, or within a foot of, the camera. But on a long cable, the problem is solved.

I use the Sennheiser ME66 usually with a 'dead cat' and I use a shoe mounted shock mount (mainly because the ME66 is too thin for the camera mic mount). No hum comes my way!

I should add that the easiest way to eliminate the hum is simply not to zoom while filming.

Any suggestions for a mic. the one I have on the camera right now, i get a hum whenever i zoom. I just cant have this happen any longer driving me crazy.
Any suggestions, would like to keep it under $200 if possible.

Hi Andy .. which mic is giving you trouble?

Hi Annie, from memory you're recording distant wildlife sounds? .. and you're running the NTG-3 with the A1 gain wound right up ... it that right :) This would put the G3 out of its comfort zone and outside its specs so you would get hum and noise.

Cheers.

Hi Allan

Yes, I'm recording wildlife, but not distant (yet). Actually the gain is turned way down because from my house I get either sounds from the farm across the fields (farmer calling cows in, milking machine pumps etc) or sounds from aircraft passing high overhead. Mostly I'm recording onto a CF card, and wait until the camera has gone into standby mode to eliminate camera noises. But it does pick up the zoom motor if I have the mic mounted on the camera. Admittedly, I haven't used the blimp yet - for the trip I'm on at present (basically a series of stills photography workshops) I didn't have room to pack the blimp as well as the XH A1 and mic.

Cheers from snowy Scotland - I'm supposed to be going home tomorrow, but it looks like I'll be snowed-in here.

Just out of curiosity, Annie - where are you just now?

Scotland! Although I live in the California, you can tell by my name where part of my heart lies. (To round the Scottish name out, the "G." stand for "Gregory".) Regarding hiss, it may also be the pre-amp (I realize the thread is about "hum."). My AT897 works fine with my XHA1, but hisses on my HV30.

Colin - I'm in Glenfeshie with Northshots. Spent part of this afternoon wading through 2ft of snow, in drifts up to my waist at times. We were supposed to be up on Cairngorm somewhere looking for ptarmigan yesterday, but abandoned that after a couple of hours. Today we should have been out looking for mountain hare, but the best we could manage was the squirrel hides near to the steading. And lots of photos of trees covered with snow. Tomorrow's sunrise somewhere above Aviemore just ain't gonna happen - at least not for us!

Andy, I use an AT875r on my XH-A1 and it works great. It comes with some spacer rings to make it fit in the XH-A1 shockmount. It won't completely reject servo hum in a quiet environment with the levels cranked up (no on-camera mic will), but the price is right and it's a huge improvement over the built-in mic.

I use a Rode NTG-2 with the rode shock mount and have 0 hum issues. Even before the shock mount, I wrapped electrical tape around the mic so it would fit in the mic bracket on the A1 and didn't have any issues with hum.