By adding a wireless camera microphone to your setup, you're not just making a big step up in sound-quality (the built-in microphone of most cameras isn't that great), but you're gaining more freedom while ensuring more focussed sound and reduced ambient noise.
Plugging a Professional Wireless Microphone into a DSLR Camera
Since you can capture stunning images with a DSLR or system camera, why not capture stunning sound as well? The integrated microphone of most cameras can often leave the audio sounding shrill and tinny, so to improve the sound quality, you can simply plug in an external microphone. In the case of wireless microphone systems, you just plug the receiver into the camera via the mini-jack audio input so it can be paired with the wireless microphone. A lot of receivers can also be neatly mounted onto the shoe mount of your camera, and like the microphone transmitter, the receiver will usually be powered standard or rechargeable batteries. For more options, see our range of cabled camera microphones.
Plugging a Professional Wireless Microphone into a Camcorder
Most camcorders will come with a microphone built in, but they won't always offer the greatest sound quality. While it's often a stereo microphone, and the sound is actually better than you'd get with a DSLR camera, most of the time, the microphone is just going to be too far away from the subject to record clear and focussed sound. By connecting up a wireless microphone, you can improve the sound and improve your subject's freedom to move. For every kind of set up, you can get a wireless clip-on microphone that will be compatible. For example: for a shoot with multiple presenters or speakers, you can use a two-channel system with two transmitters, and for interviews, you could also go for a wireless handheld microphone.
The Best Interview Microphone
The most practical microphone for interviewing has to be a handheld microphone. Compared to clip-on microphones (also known as lavalier microphones), the interviewer can simply point a handheld microphone at the next speaker, making the set up a lot more flexible, efficient and mobile. Most of the time, the receiver can be mounted directly onto the camera and the transmitter is built into the body of the microphone itself. For more, see our range of cabled reporter microphones.
Clip-On Microphones for Filming
The dialogue in film or television productions is usually captured with a shotgun microphone mounted on a boom pole so it can be kept out of shot. However, during wide shots it's much harder to close mic the subjects without the microphone actually getting in shot. In that case, you could use a discreet wireless clip-on microphone instead. These microphones can be so small that they can be hidden within the folds of clothing and hooked up to a compact bodypack transmitter that can be hidden beneath clothing or hooked onto a belt.
