3 Type of Microphones for Video Work

No matter how good your video work is, if you do not have solid audio to accompany it, it will not be a successful final product. One of the most important steps for capturing good audio is knowing which type of microphone to use. This excellent video will show you three different types of microphones for use in video work.

Coming to you from Josh Olufemii, this helpful video will show you three different types of microphones for video work. One thing to really pay attention to is the polar response pattern of a microphone (which you will see in the circular graphs in the video). These tell you how responsive a microphone is in every direction around it, which is one of the most crucial properties you should consider when choosing the right type for your work. For example, if you are shooting in a crowded environment with a lot of sound sources competing with each other around the room and want to just pick up a specific conversation, you will want to avoid something like an omnidirectional microphone, which has an even response in all directions and will capture a lot of unwanted sound. Check out the video above for the full rundown. 

Alex Cooke's picture

Alex Cooke is a Cleveland-based portrait, events, and landscape photographer. He holds an M.S. in Applied Mathematics and a doctorate in Music Composition. He is also an avid equestrian.

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12 Comments

Ok. I have a bird flying around fishing 20 meters in front of me. I want to record the bird AND my commentary on the camera, no external recorder. What's my mic set-up? (I have none I'm asking).

Good call. I've got plenty of time to play around with this. Combining both sound streams might not work at all but I've got a dual lavaliere mic setup and a shotgun and a small dish. I'll probably just end up recording the bird then narrating later but I love a stream of consciousness delivery. My goal is a camera rig mainly for stills but with the ability to quickly video with what is in my hand. We'll see and thanks my friend.

lol at the "kissing". i did a lot of work for Spanish TV. Almost all of the dialogue was recorded in the studio after we shot the scene. The sound guy, Flacco (still at Telemundo I believe), could tell if his pole guy wore his wedding ring just from the sound. He would order the ring removed, of course.

Thanks Lee for saving me a lot of typing... :-)

Have you done your own video? I'm sure there's many people who would love it.

Sure, you've got something interesting to say.

And, unless I'm mistaken, he introduces the "condenser" mic segment by speaking into a Shure SM7B, which is a dynamic, not condenser, mic. Which immediately makes me question his expertise about mic technologies...
Edit: I posted that before I got to the point when he gave us a closeup of it, where it's clear it's actually the new MV-7 instead, which is *still* a dynamic mic.

I try to not post negative stuff since comment sections for video/photography sites tend to be super toxic but couldn't help myself on this one. Guy starts talking about condenser mics and demonstrating how they sound however he is doing this with Sure MV7 DYNAMIC mic. According to him a lav mic is omni-directional. No, they CAN be omni but can also be directional like cardioid or hypercardioid and it important to take into considering when choose the right type of lav mic for a particular situation.