Something that people often overlook when they start shooting video with their high end DSLR camera is sound quality.
Strange really because it is so important.
A look at the amateur videos on YouTube highlights the problem.
OK there are some dreadful videos too but the sound quality is the thing that really hits you.
Even in feature films the image quality often would not be acceptable in a still photograph; blurry, badly exposed, colour casts, poorly framed but somehow it doesn’t matter.
We’re watching the action and following the story and in a proper feature film those effects are almost certainly intentional.
But let the sound quality slip and the effect can be disastrous.

Using the built in microphone on a DSLR is a recipe for a bad film.
They are just not up to the job and they are acoustically fixed to the camera with all its little clicks and whirs.
On top of that your control of the sound is almost non-existent.

I recently had a job for a friend, a charming (rather famous) lady who needed to audition for a movie in the States and as she was in London decided that the best way was to send a video audition reel.
I have some microphones which I considered up to the job but my trusty Nikon D700 doesn’t record video, so I borrowed my wife’s D7000 which does.
In fact it records video really very well.
Sound however gave me problems from the very beginning.
The mics were really not good enough and it took me a lot of time tinkering with the mic position and the very basic sound controls on the camera to get an acceptable sound recording.
Happily my client was delighted with the result and it certainly looked good, but I couldn’t help but feel that the sound quality lacked … oh I don’t know the word … a sort of roundness.
It just seemed a little bit “thin”.
Yes, in an ideal world I would have recorded the sound “off camera” using a stand alone audio recorder and synced the sound to the picture in post production – that’s what the pro film makers do.
However there is a half way house which you can achieve without spending another £1000 and having lots more knobs to twiddle during the shoot.
I researched microphones for use with DSLRs and quickly found that the Australian company, RODE supply some really good ones at a price that won’t break the bank (just a smallish dent really).
I went with the RODE Stereo VideoMic Pro On-Camera Microphone which is not cheap at about £170 but does produce excellent sound quality.
It comes ready for use directly on top of the camera with a proper insulated mount that isolates the microphone from camera noise – and a very good job it does too.
But I have bought myself, for the princely sum of £10, an extension lead which permits me to locate the mic “off camera” and closer in to the action.
I now have a Nikon D800 and on this model Nikon have seen fit to take sound much more seriously and there is a facility for monitoring the audio levels both visually and audibly.
A major leap forward.
So I’m ready to go.

Quite looking forward to my next video project:
Ready when you are Mr De Mille ?