Recording Audio with 7d built in microphone vs a shotgun mic and lavaliere microphone.

I have been very excited about using Fusion video to create amazing multimedia pieces ever since HD video came on to the scene for DSLR’s a few years ago. While many of our normal DSLR cameras shoot video now there are many other things other than turning your camera on to video mode in order to create some great multi media creations for our clients.

I first got excited about shooting DSLR video snippets and incorporating these into multi media creations for my clients right when the 5d markII came out. I was amazed by some of the demo movies I saw and thought it would be amazing to capture for weddings. It took me a few years to finally incorporate this into what my studio offered and this was the first year we started to shoot weddings with an extra cameraperson to create fusion movies. One thing that I never thought of when I first started shooting video with a SLR is the audio portion. I was more focused on the visuals but in some of the first engagement sessions that I did realized the built in mic’s that these SLR cameras have are really not cut out for on location shooting. There was way too much ambient noise that interfered with the audio and was very distracting in the final movie.

Today I want to do a quick post covering the different ways you can capture audio with a DSLR. There are 3 different ways I will cover in this sample clip below. These all are recorded directly into the camera but in a future post i’ll cover how to record audio into a digital recorded for even better audio. Also at the bottom of the post i’ll include the specific audio devices I used in the video. One little oops in the recording of the video, you will notice the volume on the spot with the lav mic is lower than the other 2. Mainly due to the way I clipped the mic on, I didn’t notice it was clipped sideways instead of pointing up towards my mouth. But you can easily see how the lav mic removes all of the background noise and focuses just on me.

Here is what was used during the recording.

– All recorded on a Canon 7d.
– The first section was recorded using audio straight from the camera.
– Second part was recorded using a Rode VideoMic Directional Video Condenser Microphone. This was mounted on the hotshoe of the camera and plugged right into the camera.
– The lav mic at the end was a Audio-Technica ATR-3350 Lavalier Omnidirectional Condenser Microphone, its a really inexpensive mic under $30 and does great for recording interviews.

Stay tuned for some more audio posts and more DSLR video information coming soon. If you are interested and don’t want to miss an article make sure to sign up for our email newsletter list at the top right of the page.

If you like our articles remember to share them on Facebook, Twitter or +1 them on Google. I appreciate you spreading the word to your photo friends! Also remember to always start a conversation by leaving a Facebook comment at the bottom of the page. I love to hear from you.