Before you ask, I did search the forum, and I did read the other threads about the audio for 7D, and I'm still very very lost.

From what I understand, you cannot record decent audio without an external audio recorder hooked up to a shotgun mic?

Can you hook up a shotgun mic to the audio jack and record it that way? Or no?

Also could someone explain hooking the recorder and the mic to the camera?

You can run a mic straight into camera. The Rode Videomic works fine for that.

The problem is the auto gain control on the camera...you'll find a million posts about that issue.

The Zoom H4N is a popular separate audio recorder. You can mount it to your camera via the hot shoe mount.

how would i sync the mic and the recorder ?

I assume you mean sync the recorder to the camera. Singular Software makes two programs: PluralEyes and DualEyes, for this purpose. You can also use a slate at the beginning of your take and sync it like they do in Hollywood.

To clear up your confusion.

As stated before , the main problem with using the camera to record audio is the lack of being able to bypass the AGC (Auto Gain Control) where the camera raises its gain to make up for softer sounds and lowering gain when something is loud. that makes the audio portion of the camera undesirable.

The recommended use of an additional recorder with a shotgun or any other mic is to let the camera record the image and a guide audio with its built in mic, then utilize a separate audio recording chain, where the mic goes directly or thru a mixer to a separate recorder (which is norm for big productions) such as a zoom or Sound Devices (or whatever you decide to use) . the two systems operating separately and independently of each other . to be synced up in post on your NLE. this will allow you or your sound guy to monitor/control/and archive your audio separately without touching the camera or its settings.

To sync the two together (video with audio and separate audio) you will want to use a clapper or something that makes a sharp sound as well as a visual cue. when you start to add the separate (good) audio you will pull up both the video with audio (from built in mic) and the separately recorded audio on a separate audio track. utilizing the clapper ( audio and visual sync cue) this will have a sharp big wave which you will slide your good audio track to match the sound on your built in mic track zooming in to make sure they are perfectly in sync. then you just mute the audio from the built in mic and use the better audio that was recorded on the separate audio system. and now the image and the good audio should be in sync.

there is no real point in hooking up the independent audio recorder to the camera.

read up on which mics and recorders will work better for you in teh Audio portion of the forum. as just using a shotgun mic is not usually a do-it-all best mic solution, and your particular projects may require different mics based on your locations.

The type of mic you chose may require phantom power so that may be something to consider, depending on your budget I would highly recommend something that can provide phantom power for condenser mics as most mics used for video require it even tho some can run off batteries.

I hope this clears things up for you. the main thing to remember that with these DSLRs the sound recording system is completely autonomous from the camera and joined with the video later in post.

good luck and feel free to ask any questions if you still need clearing up.

good luck

Gerry G