Mic and lighting question

Illo

Illo

Active Member
I have a cannon t4i and wanted to know if I sound get a mounted mic or stand alone with a stick to hold it. I havnt really needed it because all my videos thus far have been narrated with a voice over, however I want to do some pieces out in the open with conversations. So heres some questions about this:
Do I need a mic to pick up good sound if I have this type of camera
Would a mounted mic be enough if needed or should I go mic on a stick and whats the difference between the two?
Also, which brand should I trust and where to buy them from?

Secondly, some newer things I want to do are in spaces where light isnt strong or at night and I want to know about lighting. I know three point lighting and methods, what I need to know is the following:
What brand of lighting is trusty?
Where can I buy it?
Also, how long is a good battery life, and if some lights even come with batteries or do I always have to have an extension cord from a light source?

Thank you so much for your time into these questions!
 
For a mic you want a Rode videomic. They're great for vlogs, really clear and work perfectly with that camera. The built in mic is okay, but you'll have that annoying 'camera hiss', which the videomic will get rid of.

I can't help with lighting I'm afraid, sorry!
 
for lighting here you go, http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003Y31CAC/ref=oh_details_o00_s01_i00 just got this set a few days ago it's great bulbs last long too... and as for the mic, DO NOT BUY A MOUNTED MIC. ill say that one more time DO NOT BUY A MOUNTED MIC. any mic that plugs into a cannon DSLRs such as the T4i will sound like garbage. i know this from experience, just forked out $200 for a RODE mic, which got great reviews, plugged it into my t4i and i got this loud hissing noise and could barely hear myself. cannon DSLRs have problems with this thing called "audio automatic gain control", which means if they cannot hear something, like the silence between dialog in your videos, they will turn the sound recording volume up until they can pick up on something, which is why you hear the hissing noise. And plugging a mic into your t4i will just make the hissing worse. I suggest you go with a seperate audio recording device that does not hook up to your camera, like maybe the zoom h4n ($250) http://www.amazon.com/Zoom-Handy-Portable-Digital-Recorder/dp/B001QWBM62/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1357372856&sr=1-1&keywords=zoom h4n or if you don't have the cash to spend on something that expensive do what i did and go for something cheaper such as the zoom h1 ($99) http://www.amazon.com/Zoom-H1-Portable-Digital-Recorder/dp/B003QKBVYK/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1357372972&sr=1-1&keywords=zoom h1 (i'm waiting for mine to arrive) ... those should give you crystal clear audio :) and you can put the sound recorder on a shock mount and mount it to your camera!

Haha Sorry for the long paragraph but i just bought both a mic and lighting literally like 3 days ago! And i just wanted to warn you about buying a mic before you waste your money!
 
I personally use a Rode Videomic Pro and it's a great setup for running and gunning. It's a shotgun (aka directional) mic with some levels of adjustability but equally important is that it reduces wind noise dramatically compared to the built-in mics of camcorders/cameras which produces the scratchiest of audios at the slightest breeze. The noise is reduced even further with the deadcat cover (furry looking thing).

But if you have time to setup then perhaps a boom mic setup would be better.

I have no experience with lighting, can't comment there.
 
Jordan Rhodes said:
for lighting here you go, http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003Y31CAC/ref=oh_details_o00_s01_i00 just got this set a few days ago it's great bulbs last long too... and as for the mic, DO NOT BUY A MOUNTED MIC. ill say that one more time DO NOT BUY A MOUNTED MIC. any mic that plugs into a cannon DSLRs such as the T4i will sound like garbage. i know this from experience, just forked out $200 for a RODE mic, which got great reviews, plugged it into my t4i and i got this loud hissing noise and could barely hear myself. cannon DSLRs have problems with this thing called "audio automatic gain control", which means if they cannot hear something, like the silence between dialog in your videos, they will turn the sound recording volume up until they can pick up on something, which is why you hear the hissing noise. And plugging a mic into your t4i will just make the hissing worse. I suggest you go with a seperate audio recording device that does not hook up to your camera, like maybe the zoom h4n ($250) http://www.amazon.com/Zoom-Handy-Portable-Digital-Recorder/dp/B001QWBM62/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1357372856&sr=1-1&keywords=zoom h4n or if you don't have the cash to spend on something that expensive do what i did and go for something cheaper such as the zoom h1 ($99) http://www.amazon.com/Zoom-H1-Portable-Digital-Recorder/dp/B003QKBVYK/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1357372972&sr=1-1&keywords=zoom h1 (i'm waiting for mine to arrive) ... those should give you crystal clear audio :) and you can put the sound recorder on a shock mount and mount it to your camera!

Haha Sorry for the long paragraph but i just bought both a mic and lighting literally like 3 days ago! And i just wanted to warn you about buying a mic before you waste your money!
Click to expand...

The problem is the audio control. The canon 60d and newer has it. Otherwise you need magic lantern. Still I'm also not fan of these mic's on dslr.
 
skenkee said:
The problem is the audio control. The canon 60d and newer has it. Otherwise you need magic lantern. Still I'm also not fan of these mic's on dslr.
Click to expand...
The problem with magic latern is that the audio control is not and most likely never will be featured on the t3i and t4i firmware.
 
Jordan Rhodes said:
The problem with magic latern is that the audio control is not and most likely never will be featured on the t3i and t4i firmware.
Click to expand...

Ok well you might want to check for an external audio recorder + Shotgun mic. You don't need a clapper board but that is easier to sinc the right files etc. You can also just use hand clap instead.
 
Yeah the internal mic on DSLRs always picks up the autofocus noise and you only get rid of that with very high end lenses. Shotgun mic held above just off camera would be ideal I would think.
 
Thanks guys. I took all your stuff into consideration. This is what I got. A Rode directional Mic with a deadcat. I got a directional over a shotgun because I only want to pick up the convo I'm aiming at and I couldn't get a stick Mic cause I'm only one person... So I had to get a mounted Mic. As for lights, I git a small l e d thing... I need the big ones
 
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