Microphone for FX7

[Stelios Christofides]

Hi
Does anyone know what impedance a microphone must have to be connected to the external microphone socket of the FX7? I need to buy one and there are so many out there but I don't know which one to get. Any recommendations? Must it be stereo?
What about this one?
http://www.gameseek.co.uk/pd/PC9a3zk26fxt6/
http://www.pixmania.co.uk/uk/uk/1668...c-microph.html

Stelios

[Giroud Francois]

you do not have to match the mic with the camera, but better to match the mic with the intended use.
The FX7 has no XLR , no phantom power, so you are limited to either dynamic microphone or condenser with power supply.
dynamic microphone are rock solid, but have poor sensitivity and response frequence. They are great for close recording, when the mic can be near the sound source (prefferably less than 1 meter)
Condenser mic have great sensitivity (sometime too much, they can be saturated easily) and good response in frequency (they go easily over 15Khz so they usually sound clearer or metallic)
Condenser mic need a power supply , battery or external, at different level.
some mic can take as low as 1.5V only provided by the camera or a small battery, some others need 48V.
finally you need to select the shape of the recoding zone (very large= omni large=cardio narrow=super/hyper cardio)
Since the camera has 2 inputs, you likely will need 2 mics, or you can go for a stereo mic, usually build for video camera.
almost every mic should have an impedance between 150 and 600 Ohms, so it is not very important to check for this.
More important is the level output given by the mic (mV/Pa). some mic deliver very high signal, some other lower.
for a camera, a high signal is better since the preamp (usually low quality) will have less gain to provide (and also less noise). on the other hand, a too high signal could saturate the cam so a trial before purchase is a good idea.

symetrical output mics will need an adapter to run on the assymetrical input of your camera.
Likely all XLR plug are supposed to deliver a 3 wire symetrical signal, while all minijack will deliver a 2 wire assymetrical signal. Since you will be using assymetrical only, the length of cable should be the shortest possible (less than 5 meter).
The worst place to put a mic being on the camera, you could even plan to purchase a wireless mic, so you will be sure that your microphone will always be at the right place. Most of the wireless pack have a transmitter that can accept various microphone, so the extended use allowed.

there are many exception to what said above, but if you take this as general rule, it should be ok.

[Zsolt Gordos]

I use 3 mics from Røde.
One shotgun for talks and interviews: Røde NTG2
a stereo for ambience: Røde Stereo Videomic
and one large membrane condenser: Røde NT1000 (with a cool tube pre-amp) for post.

The stereo mic comes with a small jack, so I had to make an adaptor for XLR-s. For some funny reason they don't supply XLR cables, so order cable same time as you order mic, once you decide.

http://www.rodemic.com/?pagename=Home

[Stelios Christofides]

Hi
Thanks Giroud for your detailed answer. It helped me a lot to understand some basic concepts. The built in microphone of my FX7 is very good for general use. What I need is an external microphone and for interviews only, at some noisy areas. I think I will try and find a dynamic stereo microphone. If you know any particular model let me know please.

Stelios

[Giroud Francois]

i made 2 crowdy events with recording into the audience at break time (about 300 people in a room chatting, smoking and drinking).
For the first one i just use the internal mic of the camera (VX2000).
even at less than 1 meter, it was really difficult to hear what people said, even if during shoot, my ears could.
Seems the brain can be very selective in rejecting background noise.
So the next time i decided to use a hypercardio (shotgun) mic (something very cheap, less than 100$) mounted on the cam.
The difference was really great. Background noise decreased a lot, and speaker was really better.
this is mainly for 2 reason.
The shotgun has a smaller frequency range, so bass et high were cut, and in the case of voice recording this is an advantage.
the shotgun has a very narrow range (about 30 degrees) right in front of the mic, all the rest on the side is heavily cut.
I used this solution because it was a one man's job, but in the case of an interviewer, i would have given him my wireless, so he could hold a handhold microphone right under the mouth of the interviewed people.

[Stelios Christofides]

Thanks Giroud for the prompt reply.
What I will do then, is to find a shotgun microphone to use, since I want it for interviews at weddings, as the guests will not easily agree to put a wireless microphone on then

Stelios