I had the same issue on my new vx-2100.. I bought the Azden SGMX shotgun with 1/8 inch miniplug. I paid 100 bucks for it at the videoguys and it gives decent amateur sound which for my purposes is fine.

Saw this topic from a few months ago, and I thought I'd revive it. I'm getting more serious about sound, so I bought a cheap shotgun mic (ATR-55) which I had hoped to plug into my camera.

I'm finding that the 1/8 plugs are noisy as hell. Any time it moves, there a crackling from the connector. Are these things always so noisy? I'm also trying mono to stereo adapters, and they add even more noise when they move.

Should I give up recording main sound in the camera, and get a minidisc recorder, with the camera track as backup? My budget is limited right now.

Thanks
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Skip the adapter, the problem is the flimsy jack in the camera. Don't shove things in there which don't belong, like RS adapters. They are not all the same size. If you are plugging a mono mike into a stereo jack record to one side and duplicate the track on the other side in Post Production.
Forget using an alternate soundtrack. It's too much work to synch it up, especially with multiple cuts.
Consider a stereo mike such as an Audio Technica AT822 Stereo mike. The adapter which comes with it will plug straight into the camera's stereo jack. It also works for a DAT or minidisc recorder as well. Costs around $235.

John

I have to say go with the Sennhieser MKE-300. I have owned one for five years and have had incredible success with it. The biggest problem you may have is that it is incredibly directional, so you won't pick up much off to the side. I have used it to pick up game sounds during rugby matches, and while crowd noise is minimized, the action on the pitch is quite audible (sometimes too audible, for a family audience). It is pretty compact and has a nice sponge like wind dampener on it. For the price, I couldn't recommend anything else. Hope this helps.
Oh, I got mine at B&H too.

Also, to address your 12bit/16bit audio question, as long as you are doing all your editing on an NLE system (like VEGAS), you should keep the sound in 16 bit. Going to 12 bit adds a second stereo track called PCM. It is basically used to add elements like a soundtrack or voice over in linear editing (tape-to-tape). This is great if you are doing things like news editing where you need to get something cut quickly and add sound without having to render, but the loss of sound quality is not necessary when using Vegas, since you can add as many tracks as you want.

I'm wondering: Is there any kind of external wireless mike worth getting for concert type recording.

I have a consumer camera - the Sony TRV18.

Forgive me if it's been discussed above; I haven't read all the posts.

Sdorshan:
The miniplugs shouldn't be THAT noisy. You probably have corrosion on the inside finger that contacts one of the surfaces of the plug. You can try putting a bit of contact cleaner on the plug, and move it around inside the port. Gold plating helps here, too.

Spot apparently has not had much success with on-camera mics, but my first project turned out surprisingly good, using nothing but the Sony TRV-8 on-board microphone. Someone at Sony really did their homework; one never hears zoom noise, and the whine of the drum is almost nonexistent. I think Sony put a notch filter on the audio to take the whine out. As for noise from the operator (me), there was only one cough in the whole hour-long movie. So it can be done.

Other cameras may not fare so well. There is a greater presence of whine on a friend's D-8 Sony, and I've read that top-facing microphones on some miniDV models do a poor job.

>>> Skip the adapter, the problem is the flimsy jack in the camera. Don't shove things in there which don't belong, like RS adapters. They are not all the same size. If you are plugging a mono mike into a stereo jack record to one side and duplicate the track on the other side in Post Production. <<<

I agree that the adapters should be avoided, but I have another mic with a 1/4 inch plug, and that's going to require an adapter. I think I'd be better off with a cable adapter rather than a solid adapter. I can tape up the connection from the mic to the cable so it doesn't crackle.

Something else is weird with the shotgun mic I have. It is a mono plug, going into the camera's stereo jack. When the mic is set to wide pattern, the sound is in both channels. When it is set to directional pattern, the sound goes to the left side. Remember, this is with a mono plug. The camera is supplying plug-in power, although the mic has its own battery. Could this affect the crosstalk or phasing in some manner?

I also got a lot of hum (electrical hum, not motor noise), but perhaps the plug was not seated well.

I think the best solution is to use a mini-mixer/amp, and feed the sound into the line inputs rather than the mic input. And run a minidisc recorder as a backup or for ambience. More money of course.