Best External Microphone for a Canon 5D Mark II

[CrashRyan]

Getting around to doing some video with my Canon 5DII ... what's a good external microphone for under $200 that I can mount on my Canon 5D II ?

[matt2491]

Get the Rode VideoMic Pro. It rocks.

[CrashRyan]

The Rode is actually on my short list!  Did a little research on it, looks solid.    Good audio pickup outdoors?    I'm helping with the video duties at a cousin's wedding ... it's outdoors, curious if it picks up a lot of wind noise ?

[matt2491]

Yes it handles outdoor audio very very well. I do a lot of run and gun shooting where I need to pick up dialogue from people standing anywhere up to 25 feet away. The VMP pulls their voices right out of the air. Crisp and clean.

[Chris Mann]

If you are using the Rode Videomic (or any mic) outdoors you will find it a really good idea to add a furry windshield cover of the sort made by Rycote or Rode themselves. In very windy conditions you may need a blimp as well.

Otherwise you will be very likely to pick up wind noise.

Under $200 there probably isn't much to compete with the VideoMic Pro - the regular VideoMic has similar sound quality and is cheaper but is bulkier.

Or you could step up to the Rode NTG2 if you want a proper "pro" shotgun mic, but will need to add in the cost of an XLR to mono minijack cable and a shockmount.

Another way to go would be to use dual system sound with an inexpensive separate recorder such as the Zoom H1 or H4N, or Tascam DR-07 which you can place much closer to the people speaking. (This is a good idea especially for events so that you don't have a break in the audio when the dSLR clip breaks occur).

[ronjbase]

I would recommend a JuicedLink preamp along with any mic you add.....