I would appreciate any recommendations on a Shotgun Microphone for the Canon XH-A1. I previously had a Canon GL2 with their mic. Canon would not make a recommendation for a mic yet there literature shows one attached to the camera.

Thanks for any help

Hi Ken,

Mics are not generally particularly good with one camera or the other. When they're good, they're good with anything. Now apart from just good or bad you have a lot of different types of microphones, one more suitable for certain tasks than the other. I can recommend these threads for investigating more into this matter:

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=30261
http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=64609
http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=30781
http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=41642

Good luck!

I will check them out

Just bought a Rode NTG1 for the XH-A1 from B&H. They sell a kit (mic, isolation mount, 1 foot right angle XLR) for $250 with free shipping.

Rode actually makes a mount to adapt to the clamps on the A1 although the one in the kit slips into the shoe.

I have to shoot a school performance this week and am planning to take a feed from the board. Boards and techs sometimes being mismatched (Is that cleaning it up or what?), I HAVE to have another audio source and can't use the on-board mic with the XLR feed.

Let you know how it works.

Brad

OK. Did the shoot. Two of them actually.

The NTG-1 works great. I think the only difference between the NTG-1 and NTG-2 is that the 2 can be battery powered. (I suppose I should have gotten the 2 in case, but I'm almost always on AC.)

It's a pretty hot mic, but I had an interesting catastrophe workaround because of that (I think):

Took a board feed (balanced line) along with the Rode mounted on the camera (external preamp to boost it to line - annoying necessity). The board/operator had problems! Anyway, I'm maybe 100' from the stage and intermittantly there's NO sound working. The Rode is cranked on the preamp and on auto in the A1 and I GET AUDIO. I have to run a noise filter in post (Audition - I use the Adobe Collection) to drop the hiss but I end up with useable audio (not great, but useable) even though most of the audience couldn't hear the performers at all.

I'm definitely not recommending the NTG for 100', but when disaster hits ...

I hate when that happens.

Ty Ford

As a newbie to the audio side of things - can you explain what you mean by the Rode being a hot mic? What is the issue here, and how do you deal with it?

Hello Stephen,

Rode makes a number of mics. To which one do you refer?
A hot mic is one that is relatively more sensitive, generating a larger voltage than others. At some point (in a loud enough sound field) it might overdrive the inputs of the camera.

Regards,

Ty Ford