The day before yesterday, I went over to a friend's house to see the equipment he is putting together for a production audio job on a low budget movie.
I brought my Sennheiser ME66, my Rode Videomic, and some Sennheiser cardiod laveliers that I bought from microphonemadness.com. He had just bought a T-powered Sennheiser 415 from someone on ebay. A 415 is a predecessor to the 416 and as far as we know, very close sonicly.
Well as can be expected the 415 sounded much better than the ME66. Better ambient noise rejection, better full frequency response, more natural high end, great sensitivity etc.
What surprised the heck out of both of us is the Rode Videomic actually sounded pretty close to the 415! It obviously didn't sound quite as good: there was a noticable subtle difference, but it was in the same ballpark. Both the 415 and the Videomic blew the ME66 out of the water sound quality wise, but the difference between the 415 and Videomic was much subtler. We also were using about a ten foot Radioshack 1/8 inch to 1/8 inch extension by the way.
In fact, the difference was so great, that I'm going to shelve the ME66 in favour of the Videomic for the time being when I need to boom an interview. It just sounds so much better. I would never have believed it if I hadn't done the test myself.
So here's my conclusion: in the world of low budget audio with a prosumer camera like a VX2000: Audio quality wise, you are better off with a Rode Videomic and a a 20 foot eight inch extension than you are with the typical ME66 / Beachtek setup that so many of us (myself included) are currently using!
Now I understand why the Videomic has that boom pole threading on it's underside. It really is a viable boom mic!
I brought my Sennheiser ME66, my Rode Videomic, and some Sennheiser cardiod laveliers that I bought from microphonemadness.com. He had just bought a T-powered Sennheiser 415 from someone on ebay. A 415 is a predecessor to the 416 and as far as we know, very close sonicly.
Well as can be expected the 415 sounded much better than the ME66. Better ambient noise rejection, better full frequency response, more natural high end, great sensitivity etc.
What surprised the heck out of both of us is the Rode Videomic actually sounded pretty close to the 415! It obviously didn't sound quite as good: there was a noticable subtle difference, but it was in the same ballpark. Both the 415 and the Videomic blew the ME66 out of the water sound quality wise, but the difference between the 415 and Videomic was much subtler. We also were using about a ten foot Radioshack 1/8 inch to 1/8 inch extension by the way.
In fact, the difference was so great, that I'm going to shelve the ME66 in favour of the Videomic for the time being when I need to boom an interview. It just sounds so much better. I would never have believed it if I hadn't done the test myself.
So here's my conclusion: in the world of low budget audio with a prosumer camera like a VX2000: Audio quality wise, you are better off with a Rode Videomic and a a 20 foot eight inch extension than you are with the typical ME66 / Beachtek setup that so many of us (myself included) are currently using!
Now I understand why the Videomic has that boom pole threading on it's underside. It really is a viable boom mic!