Good value microphone for capturing ambient sound?

[newfoundmass]

5 hours ago, ac6000cw said:

There are a few camera-mount mics around like the AT8024, which combine a mono cardioid mic with a mid-side mic and are switchable between mono and stereo - https://www.audio-technica.com/en-us/at8024 (I've never used it so no idea what the sound quality is like).

That will plug directly into the 3.5mm mic jack on the camera if you want to keep things as light/small/simple as possible.

As an alternative, if you can take two mics, I'd be tempted to take maybe a stereo Rode Stereo VideoMic Pro for the 'ambient sound' situations, plus a mono Rode VideoMic NTG for when you need a more directional, more focused mic. Both will plug directly into the camera and are lightweight (about 100g each), not huge and not too expensive. Again, I've not used either mic so can't comment on the sound quality.

If you're going to be recording outdoors a lot, make sure you have decent furry windshields/windsocks for the mics - you'll definitely need them at some point...

Azden also has something similar: https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1621121-REG/azden_smx_30v_30v_stereo_mono_mixable_video.html

I've never used it, but I've heard it uses the same (or similar) shotgun capsule as my Azden SGM-250CX which I'm quite fond of and have had for nearly 10 years.

6 hours ago, lsquare said:

I guess I'm looking for an all-in-one mic, but I guess that doesn't exist. Bringing multiple mics will be an issue due to space and weight.

A lot of the mics mentioned in this post could fit in your pocket very easily. The other thing is, you can get "decent" (decent being subjective, obviously) sound with a $100 (even less on the used market) stereo mic like the Tascam TM-2X and a $49 supercardioid mic like Deity V-Mic D4. You could fit both of those mics in the same pocket. You could also just use something like a Zoom H1 as a stereo mic, mounting it to the top of and plugging it into your camera.

Basically there are options that fit within almost any budget that don't take up a ton of room. And if you buy from a reputable dealer that allows returns, you can always order something, try it out and return it if it's not what you're looking for.