HDSLR video is a great way to get high quality footage on a micro budget; and a great way to keep that budget micro is to be picky about what accessories are right for your setup. I recently received an email question focused on this and–in particular–if I had to choose between the Rode Stereo Videomic or the Zoom H4n, which would I use? So here’s a little background on my thinking…
1. Cost. They cost roughly the same amount, and I use both on a regular basis, so the question is a tough one.
2. The Rode. I recently did a blog post about the Rode Mic a few months ago. You should read it, but to summarize; I love the thing for its straight forward simplicity. It allows me to just shoot and not worry about sound, but…
3. The Zoom. …When I DO need to worry about the sound (such as an interview or a scene in a narrative film) I bust out the Zoom H4n. It captures better files that the straight camera – remember it’s sole function is audio.
So, while my preference is to have both, if forced to chose one, I would buy the H4n. Here’s why: with a little hack, spending a little more cash and buying one extra cable plus a hot shoe adapter you can turn the Zoom H4n into a badass on-camera mic. Here’s how:
First, get a hot shoe adapter like this one and mount your H4n on top of your camera.
Second, plug this line-out splitter into the headphone jack of the H4n and plug the male end of it into the mic input on your camera. Now your camera will record what the H4n’s microphones are picking up and your H4n will record a high quality, AGC (automatic gain control) free backup file.
Third, you can even monitor what the H4n is recording with 1/8” headphone jack on the fancy new cable you bought.
Lastly, an important tip. Make sure the H4n is recording! It’s easy to forget to start your audio recorder when the director just yells “Roll camera!”.
This is a little more of piecemeal one-man-band kinda setup than using just a microphone like the Rode, so make sure you’re familiar enough with your equipment to make it work properly without slowing down the production while you make adjustments. You’ll probably be in the role of be being audio guy and camera guy, so make sure to practice to get good at both.
Here’s an enlarged image of the thumbnail above, highlighting the cabling. Keep in mind that these cables were purchased at RadioShack a while back just to test out my original hack job/experiment. If you buy the cables I linked to above from B&H, your setup will look much slicker than this first attempt pictured here.
Here’s a picture of my setup with cables purchased at RadioShack. If you buy the cables I linked to above, your setup will look much slicker than mine.
I just picked up the H4N for my D7000, and you have to watch your headphone output levels going into the external mic input on the camera. Anything above 90 with an upfront spoken voice will max out and sound horrible. At the same time, make sure you send enough headphone level to the camera, or you’ll have too weak of a signal. And a simple thing to look for, if the record light is flashing, it’s not recording. One push arms it, the second push starts it. It only has to be armed to output a signal to your camera, but if you’re recording backup audio with the H4N, push the record button again.
Thanks for the link to the cable, looks like a good thing to have in the bag. Having used both the Rode and the H4N, I think it’s horses for courses. The Rode is a surprisingly good shotgun mic for what it is and I’ve picked up some good interview sound when I’ve been doing the ol run and gun. The solution listed above looks like it would be good for capturing nat sound, but I think you would want something more directional if your gathering interviews.
The good thing about the H4N is you can plug in a real shotgun mic or wireless unit to get close micing for interviews or dialog from your actors/subjects. You can also choose your audio file format, keep an eye on your levels and have the headphone out. What I typically do is use the Rode as my reference/back-up mic and use the H4N for my main audio. If you’re by yourself it’s a bit of a pain, but worthit. I do agree that if sound is important to you (and it should be), then get someone to run audio.
One final note, I’ve noticed that when the batteries get low on the H4N, it can introduce some noise into the signal. My advice is to always have spare batteries and if you hear unwanted noise on your headphones, trust that it is what is being recorded and check your batteries.
Can’t wait to see how the D4 works out, having a proper headphone jack is something you take for granted as a video shooter and noticeably missing from the current crop of DSLR’s. That Rode mic+recorder also looks pretty interesting.
Thanks for the tips Chase.
I have an h4n and I find it much more useful than an upgraded on-cam mic. For example I can put the h4n on someone and plug a lapel mic into it. As the subject wanders around ( or maybe they’re 50′ from the camera) the sound level doesnt change.
There are tons more options with a portable recorder.
Thanks for the post chase! been really considering the Rode for a while now – my d7000 mic just won’t cut it for things like (loud) live music… that XY mic setup is quite neat, aswell!
Keep it up 🙂