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Communication can be difficult when working on a set with multiple people all over the place. You often resort to yelling or using loud and annoying walkie-talkies. And neither of those are great if you’re shooting a live event.
What’s the alternative? Well, a headset, of course. While DIYP was at IBC 2023 earlier this month, we stopped by the Saramonic booth to have a chat with them about the new Saramonic WiTalk (buy here) headset ecosystem.
Saramonic just introduced the Blink ME, an innovative wireless microphone system (buy here). The Blink ME has all the features you would expect from a wireless microphone, but unlike other wireless microphones, it is button-shaped, and you can put a logo on its screen.
The Blink Me is aimed at video content creators and TV stations. This is mainly because if if key feature – the Blink ME allows users to display their logos prominently during interviews or presentations. Sheila Gou gave us the full rundown on the unit at IBC 2023.
Having a good audio recorder in the field is invaluable for any filmmaker. (a.k.a. a field recorder or a portable recorder). Audio makes up half of the audio-visual experience. If it’s not as good as possible, people will tune out of the whole thing. Sometimes, we need to record our own sounds. Often, it’s dialogue, and sometimes, it’s background noise and sound effects. But whatever we need to record, a field recorder is often the best way to do it.
Here, we look at some of our favorites from companies like Tascam, Zoom, Sony, and Sound Devices. These are field recorders that we’ve checked out or even owned in recent years and suggest you take a look at, too. We’ve split this up into three sections. With a couple of high-tier, a few medium-tier, and some entry-level options.
Saramonic recently announced the new Saramonic BlinkMe (buy here) wireless microphone system. Like many small wireless microphone systems before it, it operates on public 2.4 GHz frequencies, and is designed to attach to clothing to pick up your voice and send it to a camera or other recording device.
Saramonic BlinkMe has a trick or two up its sleeve, though, with a couple of nice features that the competition are lacking. It’s by no means perfect, but it’s the first wireless microphone I’ve seen in a long time that showed any kind of original thinking. I’ve had one for a couple of weeks now, so let’s take a look at it in more detail and hear how it sounds.
Switching from the built in microphone to one that sits on top of the camera is the first step in getting quality sound. Whether it’s your primary audio source or simply offers a clearer track for syncing in post, external mics are the way to go. They help to eliminate handling noise and are often directional to help reduce random sound coming from your environment.
The Saramonic MixMic is one such system. Although designed primarily to be used as a on-camera microphone, it offers a lot of versatility. It’s comprised of two main parts. The MixMic XLR Adapter itself, and the Saramonic NV5 microphone. And you can add a second microphone if you wish. It offers features that you can grow into and expand upon as your abilities and needs increase.
Boomed shotgun mics are my preferred method of recording audio. Lav mics are great, but for interviews and talky pieces to camera, they really don’t have that richness of a shotgun mic. Rode’s VideoMic and VideoMic Pro are two extremely popular microphones that sit in a DSLR hotshoe, but it is possible to get them off-camera.
In this video from Indy Mogul, shows a simple way to get the mic off the camera, and boomed wirelessly using the Saramonic UwMic9 (review). But, it should work with almost any wireless microphone set, including Rode’s own FilmMaker Kit. And you don’t have to use just those two microphones mentioned above, either. It’ll work with the VideoMicro, and just about any other mic that doesn’t require phantom power.
Getting good quality audio is often the biggest challenge faced by DSLR & mirrorless video shooters. The microphones built into most cameras are notoriously bad. They hear all kinds of background noise and echo, they hiss, and pick up a lot of unwanted sound from the camera itself, like autofocus (or even manual focus adjustments).
The easiest solution, of course, is to use an external microphone. You can then plug this either straight into your camera or a separate portable field recorder. While there are many different types of microphone out there, sometimes a lavalier is your best choice. This is where there Saramonic UwMic9 dual wireless lav mic kit comes in.
DSLRs & mirrorless camera internal microphones are pretty much useless. They also have notoriously bad preamps when using external microhpones. No matter how good a microphone you plug into it, when you bump up the record level on your camera, you add noise. Lots of it. The typical solution to this is record to an external unit, like the Tascam DR-70D, and then feed a line from your recorder into your camera to make it easy to sync up in post.
But what if you could skip the external recorder and actually get decent quality inside the camera to begin with? Well, Caleb Pike at DSLR Video Shooter has the answer. A $23 adapter for using your microphones with your cellphone. In this case, that adapter is the Saramonic SmartRig. Caleb offers two ways to use SmartRig to get quality audio into your camera.
Udi Tirosh is an entrepreneur, photography inventor, journalist, educator, and writer based in Israel. With over 25 years of experience in the photo-video industry, Udi has built and sold several photography-related brands. Udi has a double degree in mass media communications and computer science.
Alex Baker is a portrait and lifestyle driven photographer based in Valencia, Spain. She works on a range of projects from commercial to fine art and has had work featured in publications such as The Daily Mail, Conde Nast Traveller and El Mundo, and has exhibited work across Europe
Dave Williams is an accomplished travel photographer, writer, and best-selling author from the UK. He is also a photography educator and published Aurora expert. Dave has traveled extensively in recent years, capturing stunning images from around the world in a modified van. His work has been featured in various publications and he has worked with notable brands such as Skoda, EE, Boeing, Huawei, Microsoft, BMW, Conde Nast, Electronic Arts, Discovery, BBC, The Guardian, ESPN, NBC, and many others.
John Aldred is a photographer with over 20 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter - and occasional beta tester - of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.
Dunja Djudjic is a multi-talented artist based in Novi Sad, Serbia. With 15 years of experience as a photographer, she specializes in capturing the beauty of nature, travel, and fine art. In addition to her photography, Dunja also expresses her creativity through writing, embroidery, and jewelry making.
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