I need a shotgun...

If you want to stay in the Sony family, you may want to check out this little guy:

http://www.sonystyle.com/is-bin/INTE...3AxA&ProductID =NZ0KC0%2eNYCIAAAD1_YHx3AxE

For the money, you can't beat it. We used it on a few projects, and I'm very pleased with the results. You can use it with either the "zoom" function or as a basic shotgun mic. It won't measure up to the quality of a $300 mic, but its a good investment and the quality is superior to the built-in mic on most Sony's. You'll need to make sure that your camera has a "hot" accessory shoe though, as it draws power from the camera and feeds the directly through the shoe instead of having to use the dreaded mic minijack.

The downside to this mic is that it is hooked directly onto the camera, so you can't use it on a boom, and its not as well insulated from the camera as it should be. You won't hear the camera motor, but if you tap the camera's chasis, you will hear a dull thud, etc. on the final recording.

If you're dead-set on a boom-mountable shotgun mic, a few companies manufacture mixers that mount on the bottom of the camera, and feature dual XLR inputs and a minijack output that you can plug into the camera's mic input. Having the mixer to set the levels will help eliminate the crackle you may be hearing by plugging a mic directly into the mic input.

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ May 12, 2003 11:39 AM: Message edited by: sn-films ]</font>

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ May 12, 2003 11:42 AM: Message edited by: sn-films ]</font>