I wanted to test out these two relatively inexpensive mic solutions. I had heard a lot about the RØDE VideoMic shotgun mic but was a bit skeptical. The Sony Wasn't getting very good reviews but for the price, I wanted to see for myself.

Real World

I wanted to test these two mics in real world situations. I used my trusty pocket camera - Sony's PC-100. It's a single chip MiniDV camera that is a few years old. It has AGC (Automatic Gain Control) so you can hear the noise floor come up when there is no one speaking. This was less noticeable with the shotgun mic.

The Sony is powered by AA batteries and the RØDE by a single 9 volt.

Keep in mind, when hearing mics back to back they can be VERY different due to a wide range of things. Focus on the overall quality of each mic.

Set Up

I recorded the mics inside and outside and at different distances. The shotgun for obvious reasons and the lav to see how the transmission was at different ranges.

I edited this on an AVID with 2:1 compression and output each section "same as source". I then compressed in Flash Encoder 8 at 700 kilobits per second and the audio set to 128 kbps (layer III MP3).

I set these settings a bit higher than I normally would so you can hear the clarity (or lack thereof!).

NOTE: The Sony records to only one side and the RODE records to both. You will notice this during playback since I kept the stereo mix. This can easily be fixed in either the edit or the compression to flv.

The Winner Is...

Overall, I'd have to give the nod to the RØDE. The Sony was OK except there was some static depending on where the receiver was. The VideoMic picked up a bit more camera noise but I can see myself using the shotgun in some run-and-gun situations. The clarity was fine and not having to "wire up" someone every time is appealing.

What are YOUR impressions? Head on over to the forum and discuss this shoot out!

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