I'm a traditional Beta videographer... and adding to my arsenal of a soon coming 60D I'm considering using my wireless mics, all XLR, into the mix. I know that there's a microjack that can be used for audio input, and that Sennheiser and other manufacturers have made what would be considered an 'on-board' shotgun mic that will plug in, and now there is manual control, which is a huge deal...
So are there any 'real' mic options with a 60D, or is exterior recording the only way to go?

Besides a Beachtek box, is there any other way that I can plug in all of my XLR mics to get the work done? Or is it simply advisable to get a Zoom H4n and go the 'old fashioned way' with pluraleyes?

I'm just concerned about the audio being unbalanced, and if there are any viable 'plug in XLR solutions' for the 60D.

I don't have a 60d but i want one. my idea for audio was to run all my microphones through a zoom h4n and keep that with the boom operator so the xlr's aren't near the camera. then buy a long 3.5 male to male jack and run it from the h4n into the camera's microphone input. you do all the level tweaking through the zoom for consistent levels and have it set right into the camera so no need to worry about sync sound. and if you are multitrack recording and you want to fix it later you always have the raw zoom files.

thats just my idea though

Besides a Beachtek box, is there any other way that I can plug in all of my XLR mics to get the work done?

Also check out Juiced Link. They 'give good demo' - juicedLink, Unique and Trusted Solutions for Audio and Video Production (http://www.juicedlink.com)

A colleague has the Edirol R-44, with four inputs. It's a lovely box. I used to have an Edirol R09HR and loved it, but it got stolen and I replaced it with the Zoom H4n. It does what it says on the tin, but I dislike its ergonomics. I'd prefer the R44 over the H4n, but it's double the cost!

Quite frankly, you could get a good mixer to get all your tracks down to one mono feed and use the Juiced or Beach box to record it. If I regularly had more than two mics, and didn't have a sound engineer, I'd go for the Edirol and work at 24/96.

I'm just concerned about the audio being unbalanced, and if there are any viable 'plug in XLR solutions' for the 60D.

As long as the cable is short (like on a hot shoe mounted microphone) you certainly don't need to worry about the connection being unbalanced (there's little opportunity for noise to be introduced). For a long run like on a boom I wouldn't try to use the onboard audio of the 60D.

I have a JuicedLink Preamp. That gives me level control, phantom power, meters and a headphone jack. I highly recommend it.

Also if you have a Sennheiser G2 Wireless, it came with a miniplug to miniplug cable. It works great with the 60D directly because you can set the level of the sound level coming out of the wireless.

well you may find the overall quality of the camera audio to be sub par. good enough for quick grab shots, ambient sound for B roll, and really low end ENG type stuff.

for more critical work, I went with a tascam DR-680 6+2 track recorder. it works great, lots of tracks if and when I need them. what I am planning to do is pick up another G3 and take the output of the DR-680 and send it to the camera as back up... in case whoever is on audio forgets to roll record. its incredibly cheap insurance.....

what would you all do if filming on he move was your main thing carry it all with you, i often cover several miles.

I have one of these:

http://studio1productions.com/xlr-bp_pro.htm

I prefer the belt-clip style to the "screw on the bottom of the camera" of the Beachtek.

I do not find the camera audio to be sub par with the Juicedlink. The secret is keeping the camera level down to quiet the noisy preamp. High volume from the JuicedLink.

I just did some testing.

My 60D sounds great. It depends on you mic or mixer. Yes the 60D is noisy at higher internal levels. But if you put a level that is high enough to push down the input level to a quarter gain, it sounds good. At an eighth gain it sounds Great. How? With loud mikes or a mixer.

My loud mic is a Sennheiser G2 Wireless. The transmitter and receiver haver adjustable gain.

My mixer is a JuiceLink DT454 that I bought for my old 7D. It has meters, headphone jack and adjustable output. I just set it to high. The JuicedLink manual suggests with a 5DII that you set it to high because Canon's audio amp is noisy. The mixed has a lot of headroom so it can be driven hard.

Some mics do not have high output and should not be used. Or used a a low level and boosted in post. Post noise is better than Canon noise.

Simple Method

I use the Zoom H1 as a Mic and I also record.

Use this as a cable it works fine.


Sescom Sescom LN2MIC-ZOOMH4N 3.5mm Line to Mic 25dB Att. 9 Inch DSLR Cable for Zoom H4N and Zoom H1 DSLR Audio Cables at Markertek.com (http://www.markertek.com/Cables-Connectors-Adapters/Audio-Cables/DSLR-Audio-Cables/Sescom/LN2MIC-ZOOMH4N.xhtml?LN2MIC-ZOOMH4N)

Sescom LN2MIC-ZOOMH4N 3.5mm Line to Mic 25dB Att. 9 Inch DSLR Cable for Zoom H4N and Zoom H1

This is a cool find. How's it work with the AGC of the camera? Do you use the cam audio for simple sync with the H1 being the main audio; or is the H1 simply feeding audio to the camera?

Simple Method

I use the Zoom H1 as a Mic and I also record.

Use this as a cable it works fine.


Sescom Sescom LN2MIC-ZOOMH4N 3.5mm Line to Mic 25dB Att. 9 Inch DSLR Cable for Zoom H4N and Zoom H1 DSLR Audio Cables at Markertek.com (http://www.markertek.com/Cables-Connectors-Adapters/Audio-Cables/DSLR-Audio-Cables/Sescom/LN2MIC-ZOOMH4N.xhtml?LN2MIC-ZOOMH4N)

Sescom LN2MIC-ZOOMH4N 3.5mm Line to Mic 25dB Att. 9 Inch DSLR Cable for Zoom H4N and Zoom H1

Does the H1 mic record both in camera and internally?

Sam, with the H1 you can run a mic into it and it records that audio on the sd card in the H1. Or you can use the stereo mics built into the H1. Then you run a 3.5 stereo cable out of the H1 and into the mic into on your camera. I never do the last part, seems kind of pointless since the mic built into our cameras is adequate for syncing audio in post.

until you forget to hit record on the external recorder....

I actually bought a G3 for recorder to camera hop so I always have a best as it can be backup record on the camera now. I'm feeding the DR680 out to the transmitter, receiver on camera. I know its not the best quality way of doing things, but its way more then good enough for most purposes. if you think its "expensive", try the cost of a lost critical take because the audio recorder wasn't run... and you can't use the shot because the on camera audio just isn't good enough. it then becomes incredibly cheap insurance...

I went with the wireless simply for safety and convenience over a hardware. also using a hardware with that dinky 1/8" is really just begging to be broken off. even the HDMI port on my camera has gotten flaky after 6 months. I need to warranty repair it.

Hi all,

I use the h4n stereo mic and plug it right into the 60d "Line In". The audio in the 60d has A LOT of noise and I know it isn't the h4n as the recorded sound in the h4n sounded good. Is it because I am just using a regular audio cable? Would the Sesom 3.5mm cable mentioned by Sam solve this problem?

Any help appreciated.