microphones

[Jim Wilce]

It was very good to see many of you in San Francisco.  I'm going back to
Bangladesh for several weeks over winter break, and will be videotaping  in
private homes.  I would like recommendations on an external microphone for
the Sony VX2000 digital video camera I'll be using.  I've been told that
one can't rely on the built-in mike even in this new model. The
interactions I'll be recording are multiparty dinner table talk.  Homes in
the capital city tend to have some street noise filtering in--traffic noise
that can be quite bad.  It seems there would be problems, therefore, with
an omnidirectional mike, but a shotgun might be too narrow to include
everyone around a table.  I'm thinking about hanging some sort of
microphone from above, in which case a shotgun might work, but I haven't
used one in the past and so can't be sure.

I look forward to reading the advice and experience-reports you might post
to the list.

Best,

Jim
Jim Wilce, Associate Professor
Anthropology Department
Box 15200
Northern Arizona University
Flagstaff, AZ 86011-5200

Fax 520/523-9135
Office ph: 520/523-2729
email: jim.wilce at nau.edu
http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~jmw22 (includes information on my 1998 book,
Eloquence in Trouble: The Poetics and Politics of Complaint in Rural
Bangladesh, ISBN 0-19-510687-3.  Call OUP's NYC office at 800/334-4249.