With the exponential growth of content creation, trying to pick out the best gear can be daunting, especially if you are unfamiliar with it all. The market for microphones is constantly growing as brands dish out new models faster than they did several years ago. With many competing brands out there, which one should you get?
In this video from Caleb Pike, who we all know as DSLR Video Shooter on YouTube, he tests 12 microphone models to upgrade his current arsenal for video creation. He quickly tackles the specs and price points of each microphone and then conducts several tests based on sensitivity, rejection, and sound quality. In the end, he ranked each microphones based on their performance on each test.
Gear in the Video
- Sennheiser 416
- Sennheiser MKE 600
- Azden SGM 3500
- Azden SGM 3500L
- Rode NT5
- Oktava MK-012
- Rode NTG3
- Rode NTG5
- Rode NTG4+
- Deity S-Mic 2
- Deity S-Mic 2S
- Rode NTG8
The video is quite helpful in showing actual results in testing, especially since it was done in a controlled environment. It gave me a lot of insights on the testing and results, and quite honestly, some microphones did surprise me with how they performed. This exercise definitely helped me make an informed decision in choosing what to upgrade to next.
Been using a MKH 416 for years alongside a MIXPRE-3 II more recently makes for a great combination both indoors and out.
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Hi, I've been marinating in shotgun mic reviews as I consider getting a decent mid-proce shotgun mic for hobby/indy film production and sound design.
This is one of the more involved reviews so thanks for putting the effort, but the (retired) engineer in me wants to pick at a few points:
1 - did you factor in the results of your sensitivity tests when tabulating the results of your side and rear rejection tests? ie; did you subtract the sensitivity reading from the side and rear readings, so that you know how each mic's rejection relative to its own on-axis response? If you didn't, then the lower sensitivity mics would measure like they have much better side and rear rejection.
2 - I was disappointed that you didn't measure or comment on self- noise.
Another point - it was maybe out of scope for your particular criteria, but it would have been nice to have some assessment of the mics on the end of a boom following a moving talker, to assess ease of aiming and the changes in tone as the talker moves in and out of the sweet spot. Too few reviews seem to do that.
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