Sennheiser Sounds Good
I've been watching some phenomenal field footage for an indpendent documentary. As is typical, the director and I started talking about equipment. We both agreed that the equipment doesn't make the film BUT better equipment does give you a better chance at success. He's using the Panasonic P2 because of the speedy workflow. The footage is beautiful but the price of capture cards and storage makes it a less optimal choice for the Zambian shoot. So, we're back to the HVR-Z1U and DVX-100A. It will be much easier for us to get tapes back.
One of the things I'm most surprised at is the quality of the audio on this documentary footage. We shot several Spotlight Promos for MCC. The audio was incredibly difficult to clean up. We used a couple of shotgun microphones with wind shields but it was still difficult. This filmmaker was an advocate of the Sennheiser MKH416 shotgun because of the super-cardiod pickup pattern and dialogue optimized frequency range. It was dang good.
The other microphone he uses is Sennheiser G2-500 wireless. Now, the sound from this microphone was just incredible. It really captures the tonal quality, intonation and vocal subtlety of the individual. For independent filmmakers, I'd recommend checking out these two microphones.
