The answer to these problems can be found in an external DSLR microphone. The best DSLR microphone will help you to isolate background noise. And it will improve the quality of the sound that is captured no end. Our top pick is the Deity V-Mic D3. It has stepless gain control, long battery life, and a Rycote shockmount at an excellent price. [Note: ExpertPhotography is supported by readers. Product links on ExpertPhotography are referral links. If you use one of these and buy something, we make a little bit of money. Need more info? See how it all works here].
What Is the Best DSLR Microphone?
We’ve chosen a range from budget to pro-level. There are shotgun mics, lavaliers (or “lavs”), and handheld mics. Before we look at why we like each one, here is a summary of our recommendations.
Choosing the Best SDSLR Microphone
You’ll need to think clearly about what your recording needs are. And think about what your next upgrade will involve. If you can, buy the mic that suits the new situation. Here are our recommendations for the best DSLR microphones. There’s a lot to like about the Deity V-Mic D3. The feature that has attracted the most attention is the stepless gain control. Adjustable gain is perfect for counteracting poor camera preamps. It also helps with low signal levels, and getting the sound level right. The rechargeable battery offers about 50 hours of use. It doesn’t need different cables for phones, computers, and cameras. Instead, the Deity adjusts the output depending on what it’s connected to. The sound is just as good as the build quality. One reviewer called it the best on-camera shotgun microphone available. In a side-by-side test with the Sennheiser MKE600, I could not tell the difference. And this Deity costs about half the price of the Sennheiser. The Sennheiser MKE 600 is a long shotgun microphone. Its hallmarks are an excellent build quality and a lot of versatility. Powered by a single AA battery when connected to a camera or phone, it can also draw phantom power via XLR. The MKE 600 has a hypercardioid polar pattern. It has a high-pass filter that reduces noise below about 175 Hz. The sound is clear, especially for speech. It comes with all the connections you will need and a foam windshield and a deadcat. Although it’s not cheap, the MKE 600 is a super piece of kit for improving the audio on your videos. The Rode VideoMic Pro+ has an impressive list of features. In an emergency, you can use AA batteries instead of its rechargeable battery. You can also use it as a USB microphone. When you do this, the “mic out” port on the Pro+ becomes a headphone socket. This allows zero-latency monitoring of the microphone and computer audio. A gain switch allows +20 or -10 dB, and there is a switchable high-pass filter for 75 and 150 Hz. A nifty “safety mode” records separately to the L & R channels, with one at -10 dB. If you discover that the audio has clipped during the recording, you have a -10 track to replace the bad sections. The Rode VideoMic Pro+ includes a foam windshield, but not a deadcat. With an optional deadcat, the performance in windy conditions is excellent. The sound quality is clean and clear. It has decent low-end and good clarity in the higher frequencies needed for speech. We like its flexibility for use as a computer mic, mounts for boom poles, and XLR capability. It all helps the VideoMic Pro+ to be a great all-rounder. The Movo VXR10 Pro is a simple, compact shotgun mic. The Movo comes with foam, deadcat windshields, and a Rycote Lyre Shockmount. You also get cables to connect to your DSLR or smartphone. There are headphone and mic out sockets on the back of the mic. This is especially useful if your camera doesn’t have a headphone monitoring socket. Power comes from the camera, so no batteries or phantom power are needed. This is as simple as it gets. Mount the mic on the camera, plug it in, and hit record. Sound quality at this price point is impressive. Used on top of the camera, it lacks a little in the lower end. Held at 8-12” (20-30 cm) away, the sound is rich and balanced. But the Movo VXR10 Pro is not ideal if you record in windy conditions. The Shure VP83F is not just a microphone but also a standalone audio recorder. Camera preamps are often poor quality. They are typically quite noisy and liable to clipping. An external recorder overcomes this problem. The Shure VP83F puts the mic and audio recorder in one package. You can then record directly to a flash drive. The audio is sent to the camera as well. Indoors, the VP83F produces clear sound and has up to 60 dB adjustable gain. There is also a high-pass filter that rolls off frequencies below 170 Hz. There’s nothing wrong with the sound you’ll capture from the Shure VP83F. Some people think it’s currently the best DSLR microphone. To my ears, it sounds a little unexciting. But the onboard audio recorder makes it an interesting microphone to consider. The Rode VideoMicro shows why Rode is pretty much the microphone of choice in the vlogger sphere. Some people think they have a particular, compressed sound. This has become synonymous with YouTube and other social media. The VideoMicro has a frequency response that pretty much eliminates sub-100 Hz sound. Traffic noise, airplane hum, and similar background noise are reduced significantly. The deadcat is also very effective, even in very windy conditions. This means the VideoMicro is a good choice if you film outdoors a lot. The first thing you might notice about the Rode Wireless GO II is that it doesn’t look like a microphone. It’s a glossy square about half the size of a deck of cards. This is true of both the receiver and transmitter. But, these two squares contain an awful lot of clever tech wizardry. Wizardry that could transform your recordings. With a stated range of 200 m, you can really be confident of more than 330’ (100 m) transmission. Secondly, even if your transmission drops out for some reason, the mic/transmitter has onboard recording. It even notes when your transmission failed and puts a flag in the recording when you import it. You can activate safety mode and set one channel to record at -20 dB to cope with unexpected clipping. The GO II receiver can cope with two transmitters, making interviewing a breeze. The receiver has a very clear and informative LCD screen. It lets you monitor various aspects of the unit’s performance. Padding, in steps of 10 dB, can be changed via the Rode app to increments of your choice. The mic comes with a deadcat to cope with windy conditions, which locks securely in place. It also has a mic input, so you can connect an external microphone and use the transmitter as, well, a transmitter. The Wireless Go II is a good solution to wireless lav microphones. This is very similar in looks and specs to the Rode VideoMicro, but the Boya BY-MM1 is cheaper. The Boya shotgun mic takes its power from the camera. And it comes with both of the cables you’ll need to connect to a phone or camera. It also has a deadcat windshield. There is a handy standard tripod thread on the bottom of the hot shoe Rycote Lyre shockmount. In sound comparisons, there is little to differentiate between the Boya BY-MM1 and the Rode VideoMic. The spec sheet says the Rode has a better frequency response range. This is true in tests, but it is almost undetectable in real-life situations. Given that the Boya MM1 is about half the price of the Rode, you can see why it is a popular choice for vloggers on a budget. Another lav mic that comes in one or two-person editions is the Saramonic UwMic9S. The Saramonic impresses with the quality of its sound. The kit is comprehensive and packed in a sturdy case. You get all the cables you need for connecting to cameras or XLR sockets. And it comes with foam windshields and a deadcat. It’s good to see locking TRS connectors on the belt packs. And it’s nice to see rechargeable batteries rather than normal AA cells. These features of the Saramonic DSLR microphone make it an attractive choice. The Sennheiser Pro Audio EW 112P is sometimes called the “industry standard.” The G4 wireless lavalier microphone is the latest generation. It’s expensive, so we would expect top quality. The Sennheiser is a traditional-looking setup. Both transmitter and receiver are black boxes with protruding aerials and belt clips. The all-metal construction is a giveaway to the target market. As you’d expect, the audio quality is excellent. The range is often better than the specified 330’ (100 m). And the Pro Audio EW 112P kit comes with cables to connect to your camera and handheld recorders. The Saramonic UwMic9 HU9 is a cardioid polar pattern microphone. It offers performance and specifications that are similar to the Sennheiser. But the Saramonic is considerably cheaper. There are 16 channels to help avoid interference. Both transmitter and receiver have backlit LCD screens. They connect via TRS to your DSLR camera or XLR for high-quality audio devices. The system also allows you to connect lav mics to an XLR transmitter. This Saramonic offers plenty of features and flexibility at an attractive price. With the foam windshield, the Saramonic Vmic Pro is another pretty sizeable microphone. It has a solid metal body with an integral, non-detachable shockmount. The rear panel contains buttons for selecting gain of -10, 0, or +20 dB. There is also a high-pass filter, and a +6 dB high-frequency boost. This is useful for boosting speech against background noise. A headphone jack allows for audio monitoring. This is useful if your camera doesn’t have a headphone socket. I have listened to side-by-side samples from the Vmic, a Rode Videomic Pro+, and a Rode Video Micro. To me, the Rode mics are too trebly. The Saramonic has less treble, so will sound more mellow by comparison. It’s much better than a DSLR internal microphone. But it lacks the clarity others have at the top end that others have. You might find this more to your taste.
What to Look for in a DSLR Microphone
Some microphones have features that sound confusing if you don’t know what they are. Read on and we’ll clear up some of this confusion for you.
What Type of Microphone Is Best?
There are three types of microphones in this review. A “shotgun” microphone has some form of cardioid polar pattern. So it rejects sound that comes from the sides. They typically sit on the camera’s hot shoe. They can be mounted on a pole and used as a boom mic to get closer to the sound source. A handheld microphone is what you see reporters using. And it’s often called a reporter’s mic. It has the advantage of being close to the sound source. Its disadvantage is that it ties up one hand. Or it has to be used with a stand, which can introduce clutter. A lavalier microphone clips onto the clothing of the person speaking. It then transmits the sound to a receiver on the camera. Because they are very close to the speaker, they produce very good sound. And they are out of the direct line of speech, so pops and breath are not a problem. Someone who fiddles with their clothes can be troublesome, though.
What Is the Polar Pattern of the Microphone?
Microphones have a polar pattern. This determines whether they collect sound from everywhere or from one direction. Cardioid, supercardioid, and hypercardioid mics mainly capture sound from in front of them. Shotgun mics also have this pattern. Lavalier mics are omnidirectional. But this doesn’t matter because they are close to the sound source.
What Does a Gain Control Do?
Most microphones in this review will have some kind of gain control. This affects the strength of the signal passed to the camera preamp. Look for ones that can “boost” or “cut” (or “pad”) the signal. Of course, making the sound louder will increase everything. So it won’t solve the problem of background noise. In loud venues like rock concerts, the pad is a useful feature.
What Does a High-Pass Filter Do?
Confusingly, a “high-pass filter” reduces low frequencies. This helps eliminate traffic rumble, for instance. It might help with wind noise as well. Human speech has a high frequency. So a treble boost will help to accentuate that. Remember that a high-pass filter might make your sound lack depth. So being able to adjust the filter is a bonus.
What Else Should I Look For?
A shockmount will help isolate the microphone from the noises you make holding the camera. Any knocks, scratches, or scrapes are reduced by some method of suspending the microphone. Wind noise is the bane of the sound recordist’s life. Even a light wind can have a terrible impact on your recording. A fluffy cover, known as a “deadcat” can reduce wind noise. But you will still find there are problems. Some microphones use software filters to further improve the situation.
Conclusion: The Best DSLR Microphone
To improve the sound of your video recordings, you have to move away from the native DSLR microphone. For a budget shotgun microphone, the Boya BY-MM1 will cost you less than a family meal at a restaurant. Of the more expensive mics we’ve discussed, the Sennheiser MKE 600 would be my choice. If you want a lav mic, the Saramonic UwMic9S is full of features. On the other hand, the Rode Wireless Go II is so compact and has that onboard recording and safety channel. For an all-around solution, our top pick is the excellent Deity V-Mic D3. It’s a super combination of quality and price, and your video sound will be significantly improved.
