External mic for DVX100
 

Guys,

I'm breaking into video making. I make dog training DVD's, and have an AG DVX100A. I'm interested in suggestions for a shotgun mic for it. I've often seen them pictured with them, and mine has a mount. But I don't know what mic to get.

Any suggestions?

Thanks,
Evan

For dog training videos, where you're going to want to record speech by the trainer, an on-camera 'gun is going to be nearly useless. On-camera mics are there for either general ambience recording or for those run-and-gun news-gathering situations where coming home with the story is paramount and crappy audio is still better than coming home with none at all. It is a myth that shotguns amplify distant sounds the way a telphoto lens magnifys distant images. They just don't work that way. For recording speech with good quality, a shotgun needs to be about 24 to 36 inches inches from the subject, much closer than you're going to want to be with the camera. Unless you're working with a sound-person who is able to boom the mic close to the trainer, it's just not going to help out much. I would strongly suggest a good wireless lav setup would be a much better investment. There are a lot of shotguns on the market at various price ranges there and a choice depends in part on your budget and how critical your requirements are. But for an entry level 'gun you could do far worse than the Rode NTG-1.

Thanks, Steve. I've been using a Sony UWP-C1 with good results. It just made me curious if there were really much to gain by adding a decent 'gun over the mic provided with the camera.

Thanks again,
Evan

Not saying a good 'gun wouldn't be a good addition to your kit, just they're not for recording dialog when mounted on the camera. Shotguns aren't a "telephoto lens for sound" pulling in distant sounds.