My first post
I'm going on Safari in a few months time. I've been before, and taken a bridge camera (Canon HS 50 SX)
The internal microphone picks up the noise of the focus / zoom motor (on that model, previously owned an earlier model and don't remember it doing that)
I'm thinking of buying Canon's latest model (SX70 HS) (mine is old, don't want it to let me down). That has an external microphone socket Yeah! But no hot shoe (which is where I have previously mounted a shotgun mic - but previously I had to, also, use an external recorder - no mic socket on my current camera)
So my thinking is as follows (but I came here for advice please)
L-shaped bracket, mount the directional microphone alongside (or above) the camera
Use my existing microphone (its away in a box, so just googled for similar - e.g. RØDE VideoMic On-camera Shotgun Microphone)
Also a microphone to pick up voices of fellow travellers etc. I have lapel Lavalier, but that may be too close-range
Each of those is mono, so my thought was to add a splitter that will join them and record in camera as stereo (and then I can split the Left/Right in POST and only include when audio is worthwhile)
I also have a pocket recorder (Zoom H1N), but I think the faff of start-recorder, then start some video of an animal, and then have to SYNC them in post is way too much faff ... but I might take the recorder for sounds-in-the-night or bird song etc.
But ... I want zero weight - luggage allowance is 12kg for a fortnight. I also do not want a rats-nest of interconnectors for audio, and "2M cable supplied just-in-case". So I might want to get some very short leads - purpose made maybe?.
The L-brackets I have seen are fancy, have "padded hand-hold" lots of twiddly adjustments etc. A piece of aluminium (or even plastic) the right size, and a means of attaching to base of camera, and a shoe (or maybe just a screw hole?) for microphone seems enough to me. Its all about the weight
I also have a monopod (which I took last time, my results were stable enough, but I had to also stabilise in POST and that cost me some top/bottom clipping of video footage) - but its held together with some glue, so maybe I should buy something better. If it was able to transform into something more sturdy / tripod, that would be better. Basically standing up in a, stationary, vehicle (with no roof), I need to stabilise the camera - typically when also using long telephoto. Time is often of the essence, something is happening, vehicle stops, need to be filming immediately, not "setting up" !
I'd appreciate your advice and suggestions, thanks (I have a lot of familiarity with Canon Bridge over the years, owned SLR + Film before that, but I'm open to any and all suggestions, thanks)
I'm going on Safari in a few months time. I've been before, and taken a bridge camera (Canon HS 50 SX)
The internal microphone picks up the noise of the focus / zoom motor (on that model, previously owned an earlier model and don't remember it doing that)
I'm thinking of buying Canon's latest model (SX70 HS) (mine is old, don't want it to let me down). That has an external microphone socket Yeah! But no hot shoe (which is where I have previously mounted a shotgun mic - but previously I had to, also, use an external recorder - no mic socket on my current camera)
So my thinking is as follows (but I came here for advice please)
L-shaped bracket, mount the directional microphone alongside (or above) the camera
Use my existing microphone (its away in a box, so just googled for similar - e.g. RØDE VideoMic On-camera Shotgun Microphone)
Also a microphone to pick up voices of fellow travellers etc. I have lapel Lavalier, but that may be too close-range
Each of those is mono, so my thought was to add a splitter that will join them and record in camera as stereo (and then I can split the Left/Right in POST and only include when audio is worthwhile)
I also have a pocket recorder (Zoom H1N), but I think the faff of start-recorder, then start some video of an animal, and then have to SYNC them in post is way too much faff ... but I might take the recorder for sounds-in-the-night or bird song etc.
But ... I want zero weight - luggage allowance is 12kg for a fortnight. I also do not want a rats-nest of interconnectors for audio, and "2M cable supplied just-in-case". So I might want to get some very short leads - purpose made maybe?.
The L-brackets I have seen are fancy, have "padded hand-hold" lots of twiddly adjustments etc. A piece of aluminium (or even plastic) the right size, and a means of attaching to base of camera, and a shoe (or maybe just a screw hole?) for microphone seems enough to me. Its all about the weight
I also have a monopod (which I took last time, my results were stable enough, but I had to also stabilise in POST and that cost me some top/bottom clipping of video footage) - but its held together with some glue, so maybe I should buy something better. If it was able to transform into something more sturdy / tripod, that would be better. Basically standing up in a, stationary, vehicle (with no roof), I need to stabilise the camera - typically when also using long telephoto. Time is often of the essence, something is happening, vehicle stops, need to be filming immediately, not "setting up" !
I'd appreciate your advice and suggestions, thanks (I have a lot of familiarity with Canon Bridge over the years, owned SLR + Film before that, but I'm open to any and all suggestions, thanks)
