Guaranteed synchronous firing of both cameras An internal IMU so you can track your camera’s movements through space Guaranteed 60 fps in its WVGA stream – if you’re more interested in frame rate than resolution (like I am) this is a nice plus It’s pre-calibrated out of the box so your point clouds will be nice and pretty without the need for tuning

Specs:

• Stereo X/Y condenser microphone
• 80Hz low cut
• Integrated shock mount
• Durable cast aluminum alloy body
• Back-electret condenser microphone
• Frequency response - 35 to 20,000Hz
• Sensitivity -42dB ±3dB, 0dB=1V/Pa, 1kHz
• Signal-to-noise ratio - 75dB
• Power - 3V battery
• 115 x 45 x 55mm
• 72g
• Price - about $100 shipped

Available at:

http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Boya-BY-VM100S-Stereo-Video-Mic-for-DV-DSLR/1015975900.html

So, I am looking to have a few things sorted out in the sound dept. for a doc I am working on. I have decided that the subjects will have lavs with Tascam DR-05 recording on 16GB cards (enough space for the 12hrs or so quoted by Tascam on battery life with Eneloop Pros) I can't afford wireless, so the recorders are the best combo right now for lavs (opinions welcome on this) I heard samples of Zoom H1 vs the Tascam and the Zoom has too much hiss to my taste.

On camera:

This is where I am finding a bit of a hard time deciding. I want a compact kit (preferably without a rig)

Kit 1: Roland R-26 using all of its mics recording to their own independent channel (thats 2 omnis + XY) AT875r recording into the Roland R26 Since this test showed that the Roland has a bit of a hiss, I thought that using a Fethead attached the already short AT875r will give me a lower noise floor.

• Omni + XY + Shotgun channels to mix in post along with the lavs. --For this kit, I would need to get a cage to have both the Roland and the Shotgun mounted on the GH2.

Kit 2: For a lower price as the above: Zoom H6/H5 w/ SSH-6 mic. This module mic is a XY and short shotgun at the same time, which (with Zooms software) you can then choose how much of each set (XY and shotgun) you can have in your final mix later.

Sample of software and mic tests:

• on this one is that the AT875r takes the bench of gets sold because the module replaces it. The recorder mounts directly on the hotshote (no cage, or rig)
• Not enough samples from the SSH-6 mic out there, especially indoors and with dialogue, so it's a bit of a gamble and I don't know how well the noise floor will be with that combo. -/+ XY and Shotgun only left to mix later in post with the lavs. Hearing samples from the Omni+XY+Shotgun on the Roland leaves me with a bit of nice feeling.

Kit 3: The original kit I imagined I would get.

Tascam DR-70D AT875r

• cheaper than both above
• Dr-70D pre-amps are very nice but could also compliment them with a Fethead
• DR-70D built-in mics may be stereo...but they don't really give a stereo feeling so kind of pointless and the main reason for me to look at the above

That's pretty much what I have right now as options.

I also read about the Olympus LS-100 which has nice quiet pre-amps (for the XLRs) but I was advised by a friend that the 16bit recording may be too limiting if I need to compensate for either noise or for mixing. Any opinions on that?

Sadly enough no shop in London has all of these so I can test them all in one place and see what may fit best.

Also, my doc stuff is multi-field (indoor, outdoor) fly on the wall style 95% of the time so I really like the idea of having mixing options between the lavs, stereo and shotgun.

What do we think??

Cheaper option.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/CARDIOID-STEREO-TIE-CLIP-LAPEL-ELECTRET-MICROPHONE-MIC-/280556007445

Sony one

http://www.ebay.com/itm/SONY-ELECTRET-CONDENSER-STEREO-MICROPHONE-LAPEL-CLIP-and-STAND-NEW-FREE-US-SHIP-/271184742203

Audio Technica

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Audio-Technica-Stereo-Lavalier-Microphone-Ideal-for-recording-on-digital-media-/261237287511?pt=US_Pro_Audio_Microphones&hash=item3cd2f4aa57

These two plugs are quiet standard i've seen them in shops and on ebay, easy to find and cheap. Make sure that the "golden" plug fits strongly into the GH2 plug to make a reliable contact.

Take the interior part of the golden plug and the exterior part of the silver plug, bend the interior of the golden plug or just cut it off so it fits the the shape of the silver plug.

Fit the golden interior part into the exterior silver part of the plug, so that the little "minidisc" (red arrow) of the golden plug is outside, if not it doesn't make contact. Sorry - I just realized that the exterior angled silver plug has a plastic inside whith which you fix the cable. I forgot to put it into the photo. But obviously that helps a lot the stability of the plug.

Done!

So I started looking at stereo microphone and remembered the Mitra with philip bloom,

that sounded fantastic. But the price was a bit high, and I saw other like the Audio Technica BP4025 (a bit high also). some example here http://soundcloud.com/ausavim

Further searching I saw another system called Binaural recording when people use mannequin head and ears etc to really simulate human hearing. A company that does it http://binauralears.com/

I don't know what you lot think, but this was really a revelation to me about getting the big movie sound. From what I know is that lot of the sound effect and mixing are done in post to get the stereo or 3d effect. But some of these solution seems more appropriate to the indie crowd.