Since I’ve started doing my video podcast, Distinctions For Life, I get lots of questions about what equipment I use. Mostly these questions come from people who are wanting to do video themselves for business. Here are three things I tell them they must have in a camera.
- An audio in jack. You need to use a real microphone, and you can’t if there is no audio in.
- An audio out jack. You need to monitor that audio to make sure it sounds right. If I get my wireless mic too far from the receiver it gets all staticy. But I wouldn’t know that if someone wasn’t listening on head phones.
- HD. Probably could argue this isn’t really needed, but is does put you at another level. Plus I like the wide screen aspect ratio and doing SD in that ratio loses too much quality.
Notice something about my requirements for video work? Two of them have to do with audio. Good audio is SO important to good video.
I was recently telling someone about this and searched Reactuate to see if I had a review of the mics I use. I didn’t, so here is one.
I use the Audio-Technica ATR288W Wireless Microphone System. This system works really well for me because it lets me have two microphones and I’m not tethered to the camera. I used the hand-held mic to interview Veronica Belmont at SXSW last year. I use the lavaliere for every shoot of DFL.
To be clear, the system has one transmitter and one receiver, but two microphones. You can only use one mic at a time.
The only drawback to the set is the range of the wireless unit. It is somewhere between 5 and 10 feet depending on how strong your batteries are and any other interference.
Other than that it works flawlessly. So if you need a microphone for video work, this is the best solution for under $200.